Elegant Tern Flipping It's Fish

[Jim Neiger]

Orange County, CA - 1D Mark IV, 500mm hand held, 1/2500, F6.3, ISO 400, manual exposure

I just returned from my West Coast Flight Workshop with Doug Brown. One of the behaviors I had hoped to capture was the Elegant Terns flipping their fish in flight. I was pretty happy when I made this image. Watching and photographing the Terns and Skimmers was a blast.

[Wynand van Wyk]

Wow, amazing moment captured! Love the action of the fish in the air. Superb exposure and background.

Superbly done!

[Stu Bowie]

Well, this is so well timed, with good DOF. Apart from the flipped fish, the inflight posture of the Tern is simply superb. With your two images together, looks like you guys had more than a blast.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jim, its all about the action. what a wonderful freeze. nice BG and light as well. Well done.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Sorry, im gonna have to go the opposite direction but the image is slightly OOF (Head and bird not sharp). Great moment, light and BG... but missed in my opinion.

[Joe Senzatimore]

What timing on your part. Outstanding!!!!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great timing and angle on this image. I like that you can see the wings so well and the fanned tail. Nice bg too.

[gail bisson]

WOW jim,
I love it! Wish I could have gone to the workshop. I really have to quit my dayjob
Everything is in focus to my eye. well done,
gail

[Tin Man Lee]

Fantastic action and what a nice background you got! I hardly find any background like that in Bolsa Chica. Stunning as always!

[Karl Egressy]

Great action shot witl lovely background, Jim.

[Grace Scalzo]

Freakishly good, Jim. Anyone who has tried to photograph terns knows how difficult it is, and to get this great behavior at the same time is just outstanding. You set the bar high.

[arash_hazeghi]

great shot Jim

[Ofer Levy]

Awesome behaviour captured! Looks a bit soft to my aging eyes.

[Paul Randall]

Does look like you've tried to recover the softness a little with some over-sharpening on the head. A looser crop might help to hide any sharpness issues (if you have a little more room). Overall the exposure, colours and action is captured really well

[DanWalters]

Amazing action! Like the little bit of sand on the birds head.

[Jim Neiger]

Amazing action! Like the little bit of sand on the birds head.

Dan,

That's not sand. The Elegant Terns have a mixture of white and black feathers near the front of their heads.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful shot Jim Bhai... loved the action here..

[Troy Lim]

It was a great moment captured.
Seems like the focus was on the front wing. It would take it another notch if the back wing is stretch out. But can't have everything we want all the time or it would be too boring.
With that said, still a great moment captured! Congrats!