Snowy Ballet

[David Roach]

Another from the Snowy hover/skimming series. The splash is where the bill just went in.
1DMKIIN 400DO ISO 500 F5.6@1/4000

[Randy Stout]

David:

Interesting pose, good timing, water drops a plus. Sharp.
I might give it a bit more room to the right. The head angle looks to be just a degree or two away from the imaging plane. Very nice eye.

The duck weed has some noise in the background, although I must admit its texture may be making it look worse than it really is. I would try another round of NR on the background and see which you prefer.

[joel quenneville]

Nice action shot, David! The picture is sharp with a good exposure in whites and blacks. This was a hard high contrast scene. I believe fill flash would have helped here, the near wing is more gray than white.

[Grace Scalzo]

There's a black line on the back of the bird's neck that caught my eye as being unnatural. The eye looks a bit soft to me....I do like the droplets created by the catch and your timing for the jump was perfect.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Details, pose and setting and light look good. I wish the bird were more angled toward you, particularly the head.

[Stu Bowie]

Cool pose, leaning forward, and love the detail and exposure on the near wing. I like the curved trail of droplets from the beak. Well captured David.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like that it looks like it was falling forward but then decided to fly instead. whites well exposed. comp is fine for me.

[David Roach]

Thanks for the C&C as usual. This bird is hunting above deep water by flying out and dipping bill on the fly. The splash is from the last dip. Grace, you have very good eyes!! The line you spotted is from a quick (and sloppy) pass of the burn tool over the slightly hot spot on the lower neck/shoulder. I'll be more careful next time...