My friend Shirley Freeman and I had a brief time to spend on Assateague Island and at first we saw very few birds. This one was in the shadows and we were able to spend quite a few minutes watching him trying to eat the flounder he caught. Ultimately, the fish was too large to eat. He turned it every which way, dropped it in the water, washed it, picked it up again and just couldn’t eat it, so he abandoned the great fish!
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 5D, Mark IV. Canon 100-400 lens, 1/1000, f5.6, Auto ISO at 4000
Neat story and gave me a little laugh this morning. Shame the camera seems to have hit on the tail feathers and not the fish for sharpness. I wonder if the fish lived to tell a harrowing tale.
Hi, Donna. A terrific behavioral shot. I always wonder what birds are thinking when they attack prey this large? The bird does appear a bit soft around the head, and I think the whites could be toned down a bit? Still, an awesome image.
Nice behavior caught! I agree the whites are hot – auto ISO was biased by the dark BG and it would have taken some significant offset to compensate. I wonder how much Highlights compensation you tried – it can work wonders.
I find the amount of reflections a bit distracting and would consider a slight crop from the bottom – but leave the reflection of the bird, though.
It feels crowded on the left side – I would add canvas (or crop less) there.
The “horizon” here is the ripples and they should be leveled. The Ruler Tool shows a 4.3 degree CW rotation needed.
The image is posted in Pro Photo RGB and that will display incorrect colors and tonalities in some browsers – images for web posting should always be converted to sRGB.
The bird does appear a bit soft around the head, and I think the whites could be toned down a bit? Still, an awesome image.