Namaqua Sandgrouse Flight Formations

[Morkel Erasmus]

These sandgrouse frequent a waterhole in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in large numbers. They keep landing, splashing, taking off, flying in a wide arc and entering the waterhole from the same side.

I had a tough task capturing specific ones in focus, and liked how this came out.

Own critique is that the male in front isn't as sharp as the female, and I applied selective sharpening to remedy that. I should have stopped down to f8.0 since I had the SS.

All comments appreciated...

Techs:
Canon 40D with 100-400 L IS USM @ 400mm
f5.6 @ 1/6400 SS @ ISO-500
Exp +0.3

[Harshad Barve]

drop dead gorgeous image , getting two in one frame is not easy at all
lovely compo and techs
looks like you had great last trip
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice action Morkel, BG is nice too, as self critique wish both were is sharp focus.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved the action frozen here bhai, nice pose, light and details.. congrats..

[Stu Bowie]

You have done exceptionally well with both in the frame, especially being so far apart. I like their angles of flight, and they pop against the lighter BG nicely. Well captured mate.

[Betsie Storm]

Well captured Morkel! These guys are not easy at all, I have lots of haphazard OOF shots of them.
To make it perfect you need a third one in the formation.. :) (This might be a SA specific joke, don't know- 3 porcelain flying ducks on the wall:D).

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comments everyone! I do have shots with sharper individuals, but really liked the symmetry here...