CA Brown Pelican getting ready for a head throw

[Diane Miller]

At first I thought it was going to throw up, but a head throw finally materialized.

La Jolla. Canon 5D Mk III, 600mm II. Big Gitzo with Wimberley II. ISO 800, f/9.5, 1/000 sec. Cropped to 40% of full frame. Basic LR adjustments then to PS CS6 for some cleanup on the rock left of the tail and a piece of an OOF gull removed in the LL corner. A little feather cleanup done right at the tip of the bill as it was camouflaged by a white feather right behind it.

[Marina Scarr]

Whatever this bird has going on in its pouch is NOT a pretty sight!!! However, I love the humor of this image. It's looking just a tad bright on my just calibrated monitor, and I wonder if a slight adjustment might be in order.

[Mike Milicia]

It does seem a tad bright overall ... excellent detail and great BG!

[Bret Goddard]

That is quite a mess in that pouch but a very nice shot overall. Excellent detail.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks! I could reduce the midtones a little. One of the pitfalls in shooting in full sun is doing ETTR then trying to bring down highlights and further bring up shadow detail. Leads to flat images if you're not careful. The "soft light" as the sun comes up lasts about a minute here -- no exaggeration. The sun has been up half an hour when it comes over the hill to the east.

I'll put up the head throw in a day or two and see if I can improve the tonalities -- thanks for the heads up!