Stills

What a superb family moment.

I went to one Nature Photographer's lecture and for each image he gave us the number of hours spent in a hide to get the image. So how many hours?

He also had a couple of tricks. He would get gamekeepers to put down food for his subjects every day for several weeks before he was due to photograph. He would then say 'excuse me' or ' Oi you' when the animal approach his hide. That made the animal look at the hide and be alert.
 

Rex -- no hours spend in a hide for this one, as long as I (and all the many beach goers) stayed far enough back from the edge of their' "comfort range" the skimmers happily went about the business of mating, incubating and chick raising.

Perhaps for my next post I'll attach a nature image that did require a great deal of planning, work and patience. -- (I had my own spring project while many of you were working on SoFoMoBo.)
 

better than any human family portrait I have ever seen. A family doing its thing well captured. The background for me is a little distracting.
If this was a human family then you could use this as a lifestyles type of photo at stock agencies.
 

The ceaseless caring by birds for their offspring is one of the more amazing things about nature. These birds seem to be distinguished by one of the uglier bills that evolution has thrown up - but no doubt hugely practical. If it is the male on the right, his beak seems to have seen more action than his partner's! I quite like the background: it's as though you had stuck a modern painting behind them as your backdrop.

Nice sand. I remember that from Sanibel Island.
 

It is interesting how easy it is to anthropomorphise with this group captured like this.

On a more strictly photographic theme, I like the way that the background echoes the shapes of the birds.
 

"It is interesting how easy it is to anthropomorphise with this group captured like this."

Yes -- that is probably why this image has been popular so far. In truth, this is rather like Martin Parr's propaganda for the family album.

While the adult birds do diligently perform parental duties of feeding and protecting their chicks, it is not such a sweet and rosy scenario. The mortality rate will likely be fairly high due to predation, sibling competition, and other factors. In fact these chicks refused to eat the comparatively pitiful fish offered here.
 

"...In fact these chicks refused to eat the comparatively pitiful fish offered here..."

Nothing new here then!
 

Definitely an "ahhhhh" photo for me, and that is something I very much enjoy. Of course, the enjoyment is intensified by the excellent execution. When I studied the photo, the blurred portion of the base threw me for a second. On the other hand, cropping above it would be a very bad choice. The beautifully rendered eyes along with the framing and those wonderful orange beaks pull me right into the moment.

I agree that ungrateful children shouldn't be terribly surprising.
 

I kept thinking finger puppets - especially the subject with the beak of fish. Probably something to do with the shape of the bill I guess. It's a wonderful study though perhaps a little too intimate...do you have a version with once less teleconverter? I'm also with Colin on how well the backdrop interacts with the overall scene.
 

Guy -- I took an afternoon's worth of pictures with less lens. One of those showing a single adult bird stretching a wing is here: http://cgstudios.smugmug.com/gallery/2060681_YdtVy#323219389_SGcXF-A-LB)

With so many birds and lots of action in an area that is roped off with flags and such, it was difficult to get everything to work both technically and aesthetically. I purposely went with this focal length the following day so I could get in closer to eliminate distracting elements. Even still, so far this is the only photo I felt was worth processing from that session and though some like the background, I've had others suggest I should blur it. I will probably try a few more times -- maybe I'll eventually come up with something that better describes the nesting bird scene.
 

It is so rare that a scene like this is captured quite so close up that I consider this to be a good example of the interaction of parent and chicks. We are very spoiled by a plethora of nature programmes on the BBC (you may have an equivalent) such that one becomes quite unintentionally blasé about what one expects a nature shot to be like, having never got off the sofa! Whilst the background here isn't as conventionally 'artistic' (PAGB rules!!) as the referenced shot, it does give a much better feel for the habitat.