The Cormorant has landed

[Stu Bowie]

I went to my local pond in Pretoria over the weekend and captured various incoming shots of various ducks and cormorants. This is a White-breasted cormorant, and he gave me a full show of his wings. Ive based my rotation on the ripples in the FG.

Canon 1D Mark IV
100-400 @ 370mm
1/2000
F/7.1
ISO 800

Exp comp +0.33

[Satish Ranadive]

Stuart Sir:
Excellent landing pose you have captured.Great IQ.
Love the full wing show,very nice eye contact,beautiful colors,details,flash of water in blues.
I don't know but,I still feel that image needs some CW rotation.

Regard,
Satish.

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot Stuart!
I really like the landing pose. Especially the wing position.
Terrific details, exposed very well, and great comp.
Agree Satish, looks like it needs just a tad of CW rotation.
Well done.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I like all the lines created here making a cool X with the reflection in the middle.

[PhilCook]

That's quite a furrow it's made on landing.....nicely sharp Stuart and love those wings

[Greg Oakley]

Great action shot Stuart - superb timing and detail,
Cheers Greg

[Grace Scalzo]

Love the incoming angle. The exposure on the underwings looks great. I think (without measuring) that the whites have some hot spots. Tricky on the rotation, but I'm with Satish here.

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Faraaz Abdool]

Hey Stuart - Killer pose on this incoming cormie. Agree with the others regarding the rotation. One way to know for sure (as I've learned from Kerry Perkins) is to draw a straight line from a point down to its reflection. When that line is vertical you've got the correct rotation.

[Stu Bowie]

Agree with the others regarding the rotation. One way to know for sure (as I've learned from Kerry Perkins) is to draw a straight line from a point down to its reflection. When that line is vertical you've got the correct rotation.

Thanks Faraaz. I wish the reflection was clear enough to line up a point - please show me which one you had in mind. :w3:bg3::bg3:

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Awesome Stu, love the landing pose and good detail. Agree with rotation on this one, great work.

[David Salem]

Nice slide in pose. Good details and exposure and I like the streak of water. Like it Stuart!

[Faraaz Abdool]

Thanks Faraaz. I wish the reflection was clear enough to line up a point - please show me which one you had in mind. :w3:bg3::bg3:

Wellll it is difficult to find a clear spot, but in this case I figure you can take the approximate spot where his gular sac is (the yellow portion just before the white starts) as that can be clearly discerned in the reflection. Draw a line from the meeting point of the gular sac and neck feathers on the actual bird to the corresponding point on the reflection. It's pretty much aligned but may need a very slight CW rotation. Looking at this shot on my home monitor (as opposed to at work earlier) I'm amazed at the sharpness you got on that face!