Soar

[LeeIs]

I was on a boat earlier today and 4 birds were following us for about 45 minutes. I think people feed them and they were expecting food. They were matching the speed of our boat, and just hovering over us. it was amazing.

I had my camera interval shooting mode, because I was shooting a time lapse and I wasn't intending to shoot anything else, but wanted to cover the boat ride in its entirety in a time lapse.

After about 30 minutes of these guys perfectly matching our speed and gliding over us, I snapped and took my camera off the tripod and ruined my time lapse for a chance to get a decent shot from them. lol. Where else would i get a bird flying at high speeds and still seem perfectly still to me?? So i snapped a couple of dozen of shots and I like this one the best. just slightly cropped from the right as i had too much sky on that side.

wow, long story for such a simple shot But I know I'd get the question, how did you focus , etc. Really it was simple. they were going the same speed as us pretty much. also I was waiting and waiting for a 'glide' where he wasn't flapping his wings and was directly above us, as close as I could get to that. then he glided over and I think i got the shot i wanted.

[draymorton]

I think it's a beautiful shot. This kind of subject matter is really the domain of Loupey, et al, so I'm not sure I can offer anything useful in terms of a critique.

My main (and, perhaps, only) criticism is that the highlights look a bit hot and devoid of detail to me. Maybe that's just my display. And I'm not sure it really matters, anyway.

Where was this taken, btw?

[Greg McCary]

Well done Liban, sharp, nice colors, contrast est. It is not as easy as it looks, I know I have tried a few times.

[gahspidy]

Well done, excellent really. I couldn't ask for better light, positioning and spot on sharpness. I agree the whitest area is a bit hot with little detail, but it does not detract from the image, imo.
How'd you get him to pose for you like that :P

[GB1]

You pretty much nailed it. Good source material for a collage or ? Pretty blue color.

G

[LeeIs]

Seth, yeah I see the highlights. I shot in raw so I can pull some details out. thanks, and this was Gananoque, Ontario. Just across the st. lawrence river from alexander bay, New York.

Greg, thanks man.

Gary, it was actually taxidermy against a blue screen ;-) thanks!

hmm, good idea GB. You mean all the shots of this guy in a collage? sounds interesting, thanks for the suggestion.

[daq7]

I have to agree that I cannot add a lot. It seems to me that an extension of the canvas some to the right might create a bit more of a feeling of going somewhere, but you would have to manufacture that I guess. The blue in this shot is to die for. And the bird is tack sharp. The sharp white on the front of the wing is really stunning against the blue.

[jetrim]

beautiful shot Liban!

[LeeIs]

Thanks daq. I actually had more on the right in the original but cropped it out. since it was too vast.

thanks jet!

[llewpics]

I like that you position the bird a little to the left so to give it a perception of moving into rather than out of the frame ...something I learned recently with some of my car panning shots where I did not do that ...

[armando_m]

very nice !

Love the details on the wings

If reducing the highlights , I guess I'll do it only on the side of the head, I like the bright line in the front of the wings