1/4000 s

Don't know how fast she is!?

Awesome capture.  Contrasting background color makes the subject stand out.  I presume you were panning?

Beautiful.

ZW,

This is one of the very finest fast action captures that I have ever come across.

You have done everything perfectly.

Certainly a "7+"

Regards,

Mike

What a superb shot and such high shutter speeds to get such clarity and contrast.. This is well worth a high mark in just the difficulty of getting such a shot.. Well done... MJ

I love this photo! Awesome timing! Were you looking for this shot or did it just fall into place?

You have frozen   the right moment, good the diagonal composition, ( I would crop a little the left side), ciao Giangiorgio

Amazing shot with a perfect timing I would say :)

Details are great on the body, wonderful work!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/5712358642_2aa801ee15_m.jpg

Hi, Giangiorgio,

You are absolutelly right. Here is what folloing your advice plus noise reduction. Thank you for your great hint.

ciao ZW

Have given a 6, however, IMHO one can see here some drawbacks of the equipment regarding such a very difficult and extremely challenging situation: especially when viewing larger I see ISO grain and the bird is not absolutely tack sharp. Hypothesis: might be due to - more or less - the fact that the D300 is a good camera but simply not a pro body and the lens is not a prime (only some Canon and Nikon primes are rated 10 at Fred Miranda etc.). It is not your fault at all, but compared to similar shots of some other fellow colleagues here who employ that "full stuff" / these extremely valuable but also very, very  expensive lenses (at around or even > 10,000 $ - pro body plus prime 500 mm or 600 mm etc.), there has to be and there is actually a difference. One issue of course is - is it worth to invest so much money just to get the perfect sharpness in maybe eventually a few shots per year etc.? An enthusiast would say "yes" ("if I can afford")... Anyway, very well done and keep up your very good work.

BR / Volker