Least terns, all shots from this year. Shot over the course of the nesting season. The light ranged from non existent, gloomy clouds, foggy, bright cloudy, golden hour, to unusable midday sun on hot sand. The images are not presented in exact chronological order shot, but instead to tell the story and show the progression of the season. They have a tough life. Probably posting way too many, my apologies.
1. Coming in with food [/url]
2.
3. Gotta show off the goods. Sell it!
4. She said yes!
5. The food has to come from somewhere
6. The colors and light
7. Flying through the colony looking for a likely mate
8. Prancing through the potential takers
9. Sometimes the gift doesn't want to cooperate
10. Sitting on eggs
11. If your partner is going to sit on eggs, you better deliver food!
12. Sometimes they more than fill the frame
13. Too many flight shots
14.
15. Dive bomber (colony is very tolerant if you approach low and lay down in the sand, until a dog goes close by then they dive bomb everything in sight)
16. Motion blur
17.
18. Shake it off
19. So proud of himself for delivering another meal
20. Finally, the hard works pays off and the fuzzballs appear
21.
22. It's going to take a lot of food deliveries to get the chicks to full grown
23. Little one choking down a fish in the background
24. Running away from food
25. Food doesn't grow on trees
26. Learning to explore
27.
28. Protection
29. A little one under each wing on a very gloomy day
30. Big world for a little one
31. A happy family
32. Unbridle joy at a food delivery (My favorite of the entire series)
33. They can see food coming
34. Another gloomy day handoff
35. Napping together
36. Exploring together
37. Growing big takes lots of food
38.
39. Feed me!
40. I haven't been fed in 20 minutes!
41. Most don't make it. They get picked off by gull billed terns or other natural or unnatural predators (domestic dogs). Here a gull billed tern carries away a tern chick with a plover in hot pursuit.
42. Some days the light was too good to pass up filling a memory card
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50. They shake off sand and water the same way
51. I lost count at how many transfers I captured and how many I missed out on. Inevitably, due to photographers luck, most of them disappeared behind a piece of brush or a big rock for the decisive moment.
52. Stretching those wings
53. Flight is imminent
54. More food deliveries first
55. One of the few times the chick wasn't there to snatch the food the instant the parent landed.
56. Food on the way
57.
58.
59. Pretty much full grown and ready to fly
60.
61. Some made it!
Hopefully you made it this far. I couldn't help but post too many. Thanks for viewing.
An amazing collection of images ! All so well done and the variations in light obviously adds to the beauty and interest. Okay, so the book may be a little long but great storytelling nonetheless.
Gary
i suggest you include a warning in your title about the quantity of images in the thread so more grumpy people don't make an issue of it and instead focus on all the work you've done.
Imagemaster wrote:
Boy, do I hate it when someone posts this many images in one thread.
My apologies. I don’t know if it is against the rules or a breach of etiquette. I did not intend either. I know the post contains an unusual but not unprecedented number of images for this board. I preferred to keep the whole story in one thread rather than break it up into multiple threads and spamming the board with them.
Based on popular or unpopular responses today, I will leave as is or edit it down this evening.
Some incredible images here. If a dozen of the best were posted it would be my choice for featured thread hands down. Which you may not care about but just saying that a bit of editing would go a long way to elevate the overall quality of the post.
There is no need to edit it down! Your title gives a warning and you lived up to it And perhaps have a new record of # of images in one post.
First of all ...........AMAZING
Second of all ....... I voted
I simply and slowly just moved on from image to image, each had it's own story in light, character, pose or in the chain of life for these Terns. Very natural looking presentation, you kept the charm and character in each. Great story telling, excellent photography and a fine presentation!
Karl
TGPhotography wrote:
My apologies. I don’t know if it is against the rules or a breach of etiquette. I did not intend either. I know the post contains an unusual but not unprecedented number of images for this board. I preferred to keep the whole story in one thread rather than break it up into multiple threads and spamming the board with them.
Based on popular or unpopular responses today, I will leave as is or edit it down this evening.
Thanks.
Hey, just my opinion. A whole story does not have to be told in one thread, just like a book does not have to be written in one chapter. How many images in one thread are too many, 100, 500, 1,000? Personally, I find we are getting "image overload" nowadays. The more images posted in a single thread, the more boring I find that. If there are more than 10 or 15 images, I just tend not to look at the rest of them. Too time-consuming for me, and often too boring, especially when some tend to post a series of images that look so similar. Again, JMO.
I preferred it when there was a guideline of no more than 8 images in the same thread.
Yes, it is a LOT of images, but there is not a single one that I would not have been thrilled to shoot. And, the headline warned of "many, many images".
I would have put #48, the image of the tern filling the frame coming right at the camera, at the end of the thread.
Wow, amazing collection with so many different poses, scenes and gorgeous backgrounds. Just far too many images to comment on individually. However, I truly enjoyed them.
sum1sgrampa wrote:
An amazing collection of images ! All so well done and the variations in light obviously adds to the beauty and interest. Okay, so the book may be a little long but great storytelling nonetheless.
Gary
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed them
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n.v.m. wrote:
beautiful, wow!
i suggest you include a warning in your title about the quantity of images in the thread so more grumpy people don't make an issue of it and instead focus on all the work you've done.
Thanks for the feedback. I did add a warning as suggested.
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morris wrote:
A superb set of images yet no way to comment on this many.
Morris
Thanks Morris.
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DivineFocus wrote:
Some incredible images here. If a dozen of the best were posted it would be my choice for featured thread hands down. Which you may not care about but just saying that a bit of editing would go a long way to elevate the overall quality of the post.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed at least some of them. I understand your point and will take it into consideration for the next post I do highlighting a species. The cat is already out of the bag on this one.
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Karl Witt wrote:
There is no need to edit it down! Your title gives a warning and you lived up to it And perhaps have a new record of # of images in one post.
First of all ...........AMAZING
Second of all ....... I voted
I simply and slowly just moved on from image to image, each had it's own story in light, character, pose or in the chain of life for these Terns. Very natural looking presentation, you kept the charm and character in each. Great story telling, excellent photography and a fine presentation!
Karl
Thanks for your support!
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ElvisD wrote:
Yes, it is a LOT of images, but there is not a single one that I would not have been thrilled to shoot. And, the headline warned of "many, many images".
I would have put #48, the image of the tern filling the frame coming right at the camera, at the end of the thread.
Thanks. That was probably my 3rd favorite of the bunch after 32 and 21.
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birdied wrote:
Wow, amazing collection with so many different poses, scenes and gorgeous backgrounds. Just far too many images to comment on individually. However, I truly enjoyed them.
Birdie
Thanks! I always admire your work as well.
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kdacharya wrote:
simply marvelous, TG. love the light and action in many pics. voted.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed them.
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Thanks to everyone for both the positive and negative feedback. Due to positive feedback, thread will stay as it is with a warning unless the moderator wants to axe it.
Full disclosure, I did add the warning to the title after the first complaint. I don't know how the votes work, don't care if I get votes or not. I did not mean to rock the boat. I wanted to share the images and story I thought some people might enjoy. If you don't enjoy it, it was worth what you paid I don't expect comments on every image, or comments at all. Totally up the viewer.
Lesson learned for next time. I'll keep my post shorter.
but great storytelling nonetheless. 
And perhaps have a new record of # of images in one post.
