Black Skimmer In Flight

[Jim Fenton]

Image created at Plymouth MA this past July as this male was chasing some very harassing Laughing Gulls away from the area of it's nest.

Image is cropped vertical from the original horizontal frame.

Nikon D300, 70-300VR handheld at 230mm, ISO 620, 1/2000, f8, CW metering, NearUniWB, +.7EV applied

[Ilija Dukovski]

That is great pose, not too often seen with this bird, HA great.
Nice detail in the black plumage, bill color too. Congrats!

[Nancy A Elwood]

Hi Jim! Really, really nice!! I have not been able to get any images of this species yet. The bank, eye contact and BG are just superb. Well done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic image Jim! Banking pose is superb. I also like the grasses at bottom - grounds the image nicely.

[Raymond Barlow]

awesome wing position, top side view, eye contact, feather detail., as good as it gets Jim.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

As mentioned, fine image, wing spread (they are really long!), sharpness and good exposure. I am particularly struck by the eye, which often doesn't show up well on these guys. Did you need to do any post on the eye to get it to pop so nicely?

Randy

[David Fletcher]

That is great pose, not too often seen with this bird, HA great.
Nice detail in the black plumage, bill color too. Congrats!

Exactly what I first thought. :D. Well said Ilija. Cracking shot Jim. Lens looks good too. How do you find it? Some reports are its soft wide open at the edges, not that it matters a lot with wildlife: (reason for asking is have been thinking of buying it and I trust your judgement). Cheers anyway.

[Jim Fenton]

Randy.....no specific sharpening to the eye during processing. It was sharpened along with the rest of the image.

David.....the 70-300VR is excellent for close in fast flight shooting and medium to long landscapes / creature photography. It weighs next to nothing costs $545 or so and is extremely sharp from 7.1 through 9 from wide open to just shy of 300mm. At 300mm it's still really good between 9 and 11.

I sold my 300 f4 and now use this to go along with my 500 VR and haven't missed the 300 f4 for a minute.

[denise ippolito]

Super image and I love the details and the exposure. The images on your site are fantastic. The flight path work is really special.

[Michael Zajac]

Fantasic details and pose-really like the exposure.

[David Fletcher]

Randy.....no specific sharpening to the eye during processing. It was sharpened along with the rest of the image.

David.....the 70-300VR is excellent for close in fast flight shooting and medium to long landscapes / creature photography. It weighs next to nothing costs $545 or so and is extremely sharp from 7.1 through 9 from wide open to just shy of 300mm. At 300mm it's still really good between 9 and 11.

I sold my 300 f4 and now use this to go along with my 500 VR and haven't missed the 300 f4 for a minute.

Thanks for that Jim. Appreciated. :):)