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Black Skimmers Skimming

morris
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Black Skimmers Skimming

I was at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY shooting in hot fog. At the end of my shoot I was walking out when I reached a tidal pool with a lot of birds enjoying the calm water. There were many black skimmers there with the young ones and some adults practicing skimming. I set up my tripod kneeling behind it allowing me enough elevation to clear the birds in front of me yet get nice eye level views. The heat and humidity had tired me yet I welcomed the opportunity to take these photos and shot till I was confident that I had some good images. For those of you that don't know, the younger ones are gray and the adults have black wings.

Comments and suggestions welcome,

Morris

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/2900s 400 ISO +0.7 EV

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/3000s 400 ISO +0.3 EV

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/3000s 400 ISO 0.0 EV

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/2700s 400 ISO 0.0 EV

6) Pulling up after a skim

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/2500s 400 ISO 0.0 EV

Sep 11, 2023 at 10:55 AM

Tyr-Sog
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Killing it Morris! Every set gets more unique. Way to dial in your technique.

Wish I could find more shore birds in my area. Even when I head over to Lake Saint Clair with
all that shore real-estate I'm hard pressed to find them.

Thank you for sharing!]

Justin

Sep 11, 2023 at 11:07 AM

csinseattle
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Morris,

Excellent set, very nice

Chris S.

Sep 11, 2023 at 11:51 AM

JAM11
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Excellent series Morris! #2 for me.

Sep 11, 2023 at 12:10 PM

gmccroskery
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Wow, Morris! You're the 'Skimmermeister'! These are all excellent -- I like the close up (#2) a lot. I assume you shot these in Aperture Priority? Whatever mode, the shutter speeds were just right for freezing the action, and the lighting and exposures are perfect.

Greg

Sep 11, 2023 at 12:39 PM

B Benson
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Wow again Morris, outstanding images of a difficult subject. Well done. Bruce

Sep 11, 2023 at 05:35 PM

DivineFocus
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Nice set, Morris. Shooting them skimming is a bucket list item for me.

Sep 11, 2023 at 06:06 PM

George DeCamp
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Really well done Morris! I remember that tidal pool from last week and was hoping the skimmers would do what you saw but it only had gulls in it!

Anyway really well done!

Sep 11, 2023 at 06:07 PM

morris
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Tyr-Sog wrote:
Killing it Morris! Every set gets more unique. Way to dial in your technique.

Wish I could find more shore birds in my area. Even when I head over to Lake Saint Clair with
all that shore real-estate I'm hard pressed to find them.

Thank you for sharing!]

Justin

Thank you Justin,
I'm lucky to live near this amazing place.

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csinseattle wrote:
Morris,

Excellent set, very nice

Chris S.

Thank you Chris

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JAM11 wrote:
Excellent series Morris! #2 for me.

Thank you,
It's festinating to see what is happening that close

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gmccroskery wrote:
Wow, Morris! You're the 'Skimmermeister'! These are all excellent -- I like the close up (#2) a lot. I assume you shot these in Aperture Priority? Whatever mode, the shutter speeds were just right for freezing the action, and the lighting and exposures are perfect.

Greg

Thank you Greg,

Yes I used aperture priority. I like a fast shutter speed when they are skimming yet in the air I like to blur the wings some.

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B Benson wrote:
Wow again Morris, outstanding images of a difficult subject. Well done. Bruce

Thank you Bruce,

It's taken me years to learn how to photograph the skimmers.

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DivineFocus wrote:
Nice set, Morris. Shooting them skimming is a bucket list item for me.

Thank you Dan,
They are hear from June through September. If you do make the trip plan to be on the beach for a week as conditions vary so some days are much better than others. If there is heavy rain or unusually high tides, that's when you can photograph them in a tidal pool. The set I put up in the very nice light was shot at the ocean's edge and then you need a day with smaller waves.

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George DeCamp wrote:
Really well done Morris! I remember that tidal pool from last week and was hoping the skimmers would do what you saw but it only had gulls in it!

Anyway really well done!

Thank you George,

It was only gulls when I arrived.

Morris

Sep 13, 2023 at 05:19 PM

cnskusa
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Excellent shots!!

Sep 15, 2023 at 12:30 PM

IndyFab
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Great action series

Sep 17, 2023 at 09:29 AM

gcooke0522
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Another great set, Morris. You are really good at capturing these skimmers in action.

Gord

Sep 17, 2023 at 03:23 PM

dclark
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Excellent set of images!

Sep 17, 2023 at 07:44 PM

Ted ellis
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Excellent shots Morris.

Sep 18, 2023 at 03:13 PM

morris
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Black Skimmers Skimming

cnskusa wrote:
Excellent shots!!

Thank you
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IndyFab wrote:
Great action series

Thank you Sett

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gcooke0522 wrote:
Another great set, Morris. You are really good at capturing these skimmers in action.

Gord

Thank you Gord,

They are so much fun to watch and photograph

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dclark wrote:
Excellent set of images!

Thank you Dave

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Ted ellis wrote:
Excellent shots Morris.

Thank you Ted

Morris

Sep 18, 2023 at 08:29 PM

wonderer
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Really cool set, Morris!

I've seen birds' "flight school" exercises but these may be the first I've seen of "skim school".

I think your strategy for position worked well and you got some neat shots in spite of the heat and humidity.

Well done!

TFS

Kim

Sep 23, 2023 at 09:02 AM

probishaw
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Sep 23, 2023 at 09:07 AM

OwlsEyes
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Just another fantastic set of skimmers Morris. You have some of the best skimmer images I have seen and I always enjoy seeing what you do differently.
cheers,
bruce

Sep 23, 2023 at 10:07 AM

jowul
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Black Skimmers Skimming

Your Skimmer photos are always impressive. Here #2 and #5 are my preferred shots. Unfortunately they do not venture to the Great Lakes.

Sep 23, 2023 at 02:04 PM


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