Flying Skimmer with fish

[Kevin Giannini]

Hello,

I just became a 'member' so now I should have no problems uploading photos! (I hope).
I took this in Wrightsviille Beach, North Carolina when the Black Skimmers were feeding their young. I tried positioning myself between where they were nesting, and the water and was able to capture them returning to their young with food.
Taken with the Canon 7D with Canon 300mm f/4 IS at 1/5000 and f/5 ISO 400 EV -2/3. This was hand held. I probably had under-exposed this a bit, cause I had to increase exposure in ACR. I should not have used EV -2/3 I think.
I developed using CS5 and ACR - cropped quite a bit. I used the noise reduction in ACR on sky, and enhanced the catch light in eye, although it was there.
Thanks for looking,
Kevin

[Randy Stout]

Kevin:

Good decision to become a member. BPN is a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer.

Good job catching the skimmer with a fish. Although he is slightly past your position, the slight head turn back helps keep him engaging to the viewer.

From a composition standpoint, I would probably crop just a bit from the right and perhaps add an equal amount to the left so he isn't quite so centered and has more room to fly into. That also will reduce the impression that he is past your position a bit.

Black and white birds can be a real challenge to expose, very easy to blow the whites or lose all detail in the blacks. I have been known to shot a loon or two, so spend some time struggling with their exposure challenges.

I am constantly checking my LCDs for blinkies indicating blown pixels. A few isolated ones are fine, and can easily be recovered in the raw conversion process. I am sure you have heard this one, but in general you do want to expose to be sure you get some data in the right side of your histogram, or you are throwing away a lot of information in your capture.

Look forward to more posts.

Cheers

Randy

[John Chardine]

Hu BPN Member Kevin! Good points by Randy. I like the image. Theres a lot of interest generated by the eye contact and fish. I think the image might need another round of gentle sharpening just to bring up the eye and head detail a little.

[Kevin Giannini]

Thanks for the suggestions John an Randy. I will definitely alter the crop a bit (good point about the bird being a bit past my view) and also try selectively sharpening a bit more.
Regards,
Kevin

[Kevin Giannini]

Well, here is a repost after a slight crop and also selectively sharpening a bit more on the head and parts of the body. I used a sharpen method read about here about - I guess it increases mid-tone contrast somewhat, but what I did was create a layer mask and only sharpened those areas I wished to.
Thanks again,
Kevin

[Cheryl Slechta]

Nice job on the repost, Kevin. Welcome to BPN

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Kevin,

Welcome, nice post and repost. I agree with Randy's comments about off center and I like the composition past the eye. He is heading home and the image tells a story, simple elements make the picture strong. Good advise from John too (sharp eye is critical) and nice field technique placing yourself in a position to get the shot.

Regarding exposure, you did a good job - always expose for the bright areas and bracketing is an option too.

[David N Smith]

Nice capture Kevin. The repost is better.

Dave