In summer, from June until early August, the Arctic terns (sterna paradisea) migrate to large colonies. You can easily find them in the fields near the waterways where they nest, brood and assist the newborn babies. The acute wedged tail, the red legs and beak, and the black head makes this bird exceptionally pretty. These birds are also very aggressive in defending their territory and tend to attack those who approach, screaming and pecking the head of the victim.
I took this photo on a lonely trip made in Iceland in early July 2017 just to photograph these beautiful birds and their behavior. The photo was taken near the Jokulsarlon lagoon on a very cloudy and rainy day with a totally milky sky, in my opinion the best condition for the light and for the possibility of resuming the dances of these birds in high key.
The terns fly very fast and the best way to photograph them is forget the Heavy Prime Lens and the Tripod and use a long but bright and freehand zoom because it is impossible otherwise to follow their evolutions in flight. Even these air "encounters" are not so frequent and you have to position yourself with patience. It is also essential to use a camera that allows at least 10 images per second otherwise the possibilities of taking interesting photos are reduced. Finally the situation happened and I could take this picture.
In Post Production I just work in Adobe Camera Raw opening the shadow.
Nikon D5 + Nikon 80-400 f 4.5- 5.6 @165 mm - ƒ 6.3 1/1250
