Great crested grebe - courtship display

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS & 1.4TC 1, tripod ISO 640 -0.3 1/800 sec f5.6

Another shot from that special day, all C & C welcome.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

They do the craziest things for courtship huh? I like this one too. Nice work on the whites

[gail bisson]

Wow Jonathan! This entire series is stunning. Love this one as well. The identical mirror poses, the material in the mouth, the dark moody tone. I can hear the tango music now- soft and sexy!! No nits from me except that it isn't mine!
gail

[Richard Stern]

Terrific in every way, and the same day as the Wren shot - Wow! I wonder about a vertical crop.

Richard (born and bred in West Kirby many years ago)

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose and details and great you got both of them sharp. well done!!!

[Roger Clark]

I agree with the above. This is a great example of when a centered crop works well. A vertical crop would also work, but I like it as is.

Roger

[Rod Warnock]

Superb image, Jonathan ! Sharp, detail throughout plus action.
Great series as well.
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[Robert Holguin]

Wow!!!! Another amazing shot. Love the poses, excellent detail, and very well composed.
Very well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the C&C everyone, glad you liked it. The whites were processed in ACR they were about 230 or close, in Photoshop I had to do a linear burn by the time a jpeg was produced they became a little too bright.
1) Ctrl+Alt+shift+2 = select brightest areas
2) Ctrl+J = new layer
3) Selected linear burn (drop down on top of palette)- about 40%

[Tom Rambaut]

I wish I was there for this. I could watch this all day.

[Conrad Tan]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I think a vert crop would even be better IMHO

[Robert Rommel]

What a moment! Glad you could share it with the grebes and then with us. The light, colors, behavior, all perfect. The only thing I can suggest is to take a little off the right side (or add to the left) so that the symmetry is exact (right now the line between the two birds is slightly to the left in the frame). Fabulous image!

[christopher galeski]

very nice image,sharp,great pose,well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Jonathan! I like the mirror poses, sharpness and exposure.