Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

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DoJC
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p.1 #1 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

On an amazingly calm day where I looked over the water and just prayed for a few passes of some low, slow flying skimmers it came to pass. Just a couple made passes near enough to get some great shots, and I did my best to take advantage of the situation. Many more were out near the reddish egret and made several passes where they never flapped, they simply skimmed with their wings out straight horizontally. It was still impressive.

While the wingtip clipping happened in far too many shots I really liked the effect anyway. These shots are not cropped at all, just trimmed down to 1200 pixels when exported from LightRoom2.

Without further ado, here are the shots I chose to post today. Hopefully no one is getting tired of seeing so many shots of these magnificent birds. Sadly, they will be migrating out of the area in the near future, and it will be another eight months or so until they return.

I REALLY loved how these two shots would normally not have been very good as its wing covered its face - but the reflection revealed what the direct view couldn't.

Edited on Aug 07, 2008 at 05:31 PM

Aug 07, 2008 at 05:26 PM

Martin Good
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p.1 #2 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Neat shots especially where you have captured the full relection. Favourite composition is number 3 where the eye is drawn totally to the bird without any distractions.
Martin

Aug 07, 2008 at 05:41 PM

DoJC
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p.1 #3 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Martin Good wrote:
Neat shots especially where you have captured the full relection. Favourite composition is number 3 where the eye is drawn totally to the bird without any distractions.
Martin
Martin,

Thank you! I never thought about the absence of distraction in the 3rd shot. Good point.

Aug 07, 2008 at 05:55 PM

Lil Judd
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p.1 #4 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Doug,

nice series - - hard to get still water at Bolsa

A few nice ones for sure.

Congratulations

Lil

Aug 07, 2008 at 06:14 PM

tfoltz
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p.1 #5 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Doug,
Numer 3 is a WINNER!!
Good Job!
Tim

Aug 07, 2008 at 07:52 PM

Karl Witt
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p.1 #6 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Way to go Doug, great shooting, they got in close to you! #3 is fantastic, I would consider trimming out the bottom much and show water only on this one

Very nice job on the follow focusing, what a great reward to have these shot captured!

Karl

Aug 07, 2008 at 08:08 PM

web52
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p.1 #7 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Yah. third one is best!
Nice series. Thanks for sharing.

Bill

Aug 07, 2008 at 09:46 PM

DoJC
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p.1 #8 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Karl Witt wrote:
Way to go Doug, great shooting, they got in close to you! #3 is fantastic, I would consider trimming out the bottom much and show water only on this one

Very nice job on the follow focusing, what a great reward to have these shot captured!

Karl
Karl,

Great idea on the cropping. If you refresh your screen it is now cropped to just show the bird, water and trail. It does make for a much better shot this way.

After months of spending time following these birds and getting captures today was the pay-off - in a big way. A month ago half or more of these shots would have been out-of-focus. Thankfully, the calm weather conditions and birds combined at a time I had just enough experience to get the captures. Just wish I would have zoomed out just a teensy weensy bit more to get the wingtips in the frame!

Aug 07, 2008 at 10:56 PM

DoJC
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p.1 #9 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Lil Judd wrote:
Doug,
nice series - - hard to get still water at Bolsa
A few nice ones for sure.
Congratulations
Lil

Thank again Lil. After over two months of going out the only calm day I've seen happened to be today. The last calm day was in the morning back at the end of May or so, and there were no skimmers out then. To say I was elated at seeing this is an understatement.

Aug 07, 2008 at 10:58 PM

DoJC
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p.1 #10 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

tfoltz wrote:
Doug,
Numer 3 is a WINNER!!
Good Job!
Tim
Thank you Tim. Karl's advice on cropping was very sound, and now I think the shot is even better. Guess I should look at cropping more closely to work with the subject. These were more of an idea to preserve how the shot was taken - which mean almost nothing. It showed the condition that existed as I looked through the viewfinder and took the shots.

Aug 07, 2008 at 10:59 PM

DoJC
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p.1 #11 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

web52 wrote:
Yah. third one is best!
Nice series. Thanks for sharing.

Bill
Thank you BIll. You are quite welcome. It seems that #3 caught everyone's attention way more than I could have anticipated. I preferred the last three shots myself, but can appreciate #3 more now that it's cropped. That full reflection really is nice, and the beak just coming out of the water, yet still having a trail simply works.

Aug 07, 2008 at 11:01 PM

trailhiker
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p.1 #12 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Good shootin' in Morning Light on these, Doug! VERY nice reflection shots. Yeah, I too will miss these always entertaining Skimmers when they take off...

Best Wishes,
Steve

Aug 07, 2008 at 11:34 PM

Thang
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p.1 #13 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

good work Doug. Looks like you're getting good uses out of that lens. Ready to give it back for my osprey season?

Edited on Aug 08, 2008 at 03:56 AM

Aug 08, 2008 at 03:56 AM

lhdvries
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p.1 #14 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Very nice Doug, fascinating shots of a fascinating activity!!
Leon

Aug 08, 2008 at 04:39 AM

CaseyChaos
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p.1 #15 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Great shots!! Amazingly calm water!

Aug 08, 2008 at 04:47 AM

Rob Tillyer
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p.1 #16 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Very nice, I really like the third one.

Aug 09, 2008 at 04:54 AM

harshaj1
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p.1 #17 · Skimmers w/ Great Reflections from today (Aug 7th)

Neat action shots Doug. Great work.
Harsha

Aug 09, 2008 at 05:06 AM


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