Take off

[qball]

My first attempt at birds - tried to get individual birds but this is the only one that came out looking sort of OK. What draws me to this is that all the birds are at different stages of taking off...

Would appreciate any thoughts.

[Knight]

Superb capture , were was the photo taken ?

[Nina]

The fact that it isn't a typical bird shot is what I like about this.

[gahspidy]

Welcome to the forum,
This is very nice and has an artistic feel to it in the way the birds form an arch and are each captured in different poses. Did you clean up this image with a noise reducer or something to the effect. The birds look unusually smooth, almost plastic like. But it does not hurt the overall image. Good one

[natefromri]

Very cool shot! I think this is really an interesting photograph and I agree, it's not the typical bird shot. Nice job.

--Nate

[Paul Wolf]

The crescent shaped arrangement of the birds in various stages of flight or positioning is what makes this shot very different from static bird pics. The overall composition is excellent, although try cropping the right a bit, to just beyond the bird on the far right. It seems to tighten the composition and emphasizes the crescent arrangement of the birds.
You might even try taking some off the top, as well. If you have enough detail and sharpness in the subject, the result could be even more exciting and interesting.

Good eye in seeing this as a photo opp, by the way. For me, that's the toughest part.

Paul

[qball]

Thanks for all your kind words!

Knight - I was on my way home when I saw the birds next to the road. You see these birds quite a lot here in South Africa, especially around cattle.

Gary - A little bit. I only changed levels and cropped - no noise. I have noticed that on high contrast things (e.g the birds and the tree) the very light colors seem to look like this on my camera (FinePix S5500 - S5100 in the states)

Paul - I will try the crop you suggested, I had a feeling the crop should be tighter.