Young Skimmer

[Fabs Forns]

Yesterday was a very tough day to focus on them, there were three Canons and two Nikons and were were all having a hard time focusing on them in the ocean, whether it was with center points or more. Maybe they had too much too eat and were faster than normal :)
Anyway, here's one of them.

Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens (mm): 400
ISO: 500
Aperture: 7.1
Shutter: 1/2000

[Keith Carver]

Superb, Fabs. Love the open mandibles, eye contact, and especially the reflections. Nice to see an immature in flight, pristine feathers and all. And I like that the skimmer is flying toward you. :D

[Robert O'Toole]

Really like the wings up V position and and head down. The wave makes it interesting.

The small small ripples and wavelets normally cause AF difficulties.

Robert

[Jim Fenton]

What really makes this one for me Fabs is the curvature of the wave top matching the curvature of the birds body.

I like this one a lot :)

[Randy Stout]

Fabs:

Lovely techs, the well lit bird and darker background really makes it popl

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice Fabs, love the full V and sharp. good eye contact, my fav. image of today

[Marina Scarr]

This capture works b/c of the terrific light and the wave, and the comp/crop you have chosen works well.

[Ofer Levy]

Excellent shot Fabs! Great pose, light and composition. The wave is a great bonus.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Outstanding image. exposure is dead on. Love the crop. AF is always tough with the waves and all.

[Grace Scalzo]

Sweet image, Fabs! Love the wave under the body, the wing position and the open mandible. Superb.

[Manjesh Lingamurthy]

Beautiful shot fabs. Lovely wing spread, beak just touching the water, head angle and catch light in the eye. Nice composition. I do not see that much detail on the shadow part of the left wing. Could be my monitor. :)

[Stu Bowie]

Good sharp detail Fabs, and well done with the exposure on the underwing. Very well timed to capture the moment of skimming.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved the moment Fabs, nice details, light and the wave adds well... congrats..

[susanschermer]

I really like the detail in the ocean action. Perhaps that's why you had difficulty focusing on the bird.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Lovely wing position and light! Head could be a tad sharper, focus seems to be on the tail?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Fabs, the contrast in this is superb. So is the feather definition on the under wing. Interesting shooting angle but it is working very well here. Thx for sharing.

[vikrant kane]

Superb!! Fabs. Love the open mandibles

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Fabs,

Great low angle and love the vert - very cool, watching the skimmer do it's thing - strong image.

[allanrube]

Besides the composition which is lovely, I haven't seem a skimmer shot as well exposed. Did you have to do much in post processing, use a flash, or was the light just right?