Chorus Line

Gallery: AvianPosted January 9, 2011235 views21 comments

Spent some time with a group of Black-necked Stilts the other day at Brazoria NWR. I liked this image showing the birds in various stages of taking off - reminds me a dance line.

If the birds look tilted, it's because they were leaning into a hard wind. I wish I would have stopped down a little more in order to have all of the birds in focus, but I think the image works as is, what do you think?

1DMK4 / 600 / 1250 @ 7.1 / ISO 400
Manual exp., spot metered, tripod
50% of full frame- cropped to eliminate bird parts from edges of frame. I also cloned out an OOF white bird in the BG that was distracting.

Comments and Critiques greatly appreciated.

Comments

21 comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on January 9, 2011 at 10:50 PM

neat shot, Randy--if not for variation in the birds, it could be a multiple exposure of a single bird. I really like the sequence of poses, as well as the 3 layers of grasses, water, and grasses. A little more DOF for that back bird would have been great, but would have been hard to accomplish in the moment.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on January 9, 2011 at 11:04 PM

Looking @ the thumbnail I thought this was photoshopped showing a bird landing... but that's not the case! Really solid exposure and I like the habitat and graduated look... too bad this wasn't @ f/11 or f/13

- Luke

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by dan elster on January 9, 2011 at 11:05 PM

This is a great shop although I agree with Luke, a little more DOF would have put this over the top.

Registered on September 23, 2005, 299 Posts, 2443 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on January 9, 2011 at 11:09 PM

Randy, I can see why this is such a favorite of yours...I really like the sense of motion in this. BTW, even though they are all in various take-off stages, the motion and natural left to right movement of the viewer's eyes, makes this look more like a landing....kind of cool!

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on January 9, 2011 at 11:13 PM

That is amazingly synchronized. Love the rich blue of the water and warm greens and golds of the grasses. More DOF might have been nice but this is still very eye catching indeed.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on January 9, 2011 at 11:26 PM

works fine for me!
Nice poses, great colors.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 10, 2011 at 12:06 AM

Great composition, Randy. A fun image.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on January 10, 2011 at 1:11 AM

What a great capture! Like Luke, I thought it was a Photoshop project, but it's real. Bonus points for the work on the exposure.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on January 10, 2011 at 6:39 AM

Love the sequence of birds Randy. I'd be tempted to add a tiny bit to the bottom as the front bird's virtual legs would be very close to the bottom.

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on January 10, 2011 at 8:40 AM

What a shot! I agree with you that it would have been great to have them all perfectly in focus but that it most definitely works as is. Beautiful colors and light.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on January 10, 2011 at 8:46 AM

I too originally thought this was a sequence of poses from one bird landing! Very cool...what a terrific composition, very unique! Agree that a bit more DOF would have been ideal.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on January 10, 2011 at 10:07 AM

Excellent! I have no nits!

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by David Schoen on January 10, 2011 at 4:42 PM

Very nice positioning of the shorebirds and hard to do at any aperture...

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on January 10, 2011 at 6:16 PM

Very neat shot Randy. More DOF and it would have been even better but how can you anticipate something like this? Very unusual.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Geoffrey Baker on January 10, 2011 at 6:29 PM

Well spotted and taken.

Geoff.

Registered on August 20, 2010, 192 Posts, 980 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on January 10, 2011 at 9:15 PM

A unique image and very interesting.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by richard remington on January 10, 2011 at 10:45 PM

It definitely works. It seems like a synchronized takeoff they coordinated with you for a picture. It is wonderful action.

Rick

Registered on March 12, 2010, 105 Posts, 368 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on January 11, 2011 at 12:15 AM

Wow Randy. I can't even seem to shoot one of these birds and you get all of them in one image. Yeah more DOF would have been ideal, but the content of this image more than makes up for it. Well done.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on January 12, 2011 at 2:37 AM

I thought this was a multiple exposure or merged images. What great timing on this shot, Randy. The minor amount of softness on one bird doesn't bother me at all. It's the action that fascinates me and the almost perfect sequence of birds taking flight. Beautiful image.

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on January 12, 2011 at 3:15 AM

One in a million