Big Bomber Flyby Portrait

[Kirk Benson]

While shooting Ospreys at Bolsa Chica in the late afternoon last October, this Brown Pelican did a low flyby right past me and I was able to grab this frame.
There have already been a bunch of excellent portraits posted so far for March's Theme... I thought it would be fun to post an IF portrait rather than a perched one. This is almost Full Frame at 700mm, cropped just slightly.

D800 | 500 f/4 AF-S D w TC-14E II @ 700mm ~ 1/3200s f/7.1 ISO 400 Hand Held

All C&C are greatly encouraged, most appreciated, and always learned from. Thanks for looking at what I love to do.

[William Dickson]

Wow Kirk, this is awesome. The details are perfect. The look from the eye is fixed straight ahead making the image very natural looking. And, there is a feel of speed on the image aswell. Top marks, thanks for sharing this :S3:

[Diane Miller]

Incredible! Sharper than some perched subjects might be!

[David Salem]

Great looking frame Kirk! Nice and sharp and although he does not have the color of a La Jolla bird, he still has quite a bit of nice color. I might think about bringing up the exposure a hair on this one. Just a little dark on my monitor.I have some very similar frames probably taken at the exact same spot on the bridge on a nice evening. Well done Kirk.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pretty cool! I like that it is flying low enough to get water as the background. The head tucked back is rather neat and very representative of how these guys glide by. Good light, nice colours. As posted I may trade about an inch off the left to pace at right. Nicely done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Kirk, having too much glass on occasions can pay off, as it has here. :w3 Great close up, and I really like the colours on this fellow - much more colourful than our Pelicans. Excellent detail, love the eye full of concentration, and nicely flighted against your water BG. Well captured.

[keith mitchell]

Kirk the detail on this is superb.

Keith.

[Kirk Benson]

Great looking frame Kirk! Nice and sharp and although he does not have the color of a La Jolla bird, he still has quite a bit of nice color. I might think about bringing up the exposure a hair on this one. Just a little dark on my monitor.I have some very similar frames probably taken at the exact same spot on the bridge on a nice evening. Well done Kirk.

Thanks a ton for the good words David, glad you like it. Thanks also for the suggestion to bring up the exposure a bit, although I like the look as-is, your idea might make it even better.
BTW... this was taken in the back-bay under the snags on the bank where the Ospreys bring their fish to feed on. Thanks again David, most appreciated.

Kirk

[Kirk Benson]

Pretty cool! I like that it is flying low enough to get water as the background. The head tucked back is rather neat and very representative of how these guys glide by. Good light, nice colours. As posted I may trade about an inch off the left to pace at right. Nicely done.

Thanks so much for the kind words Daniel, most appreciated. I would love to trade an inch off the left for another inch at right, unfortunately this is FF and I don't have the PP skillz yet to add canvas. :S3:

Kirk

[Kirk Benson]

William, Diane, Stuart, and Keith... really appreciate your encouraging words, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :S3:

[David Salem]

Hey Kirk,

I thought for sure this was shot at the bridge at BC. I know the spot you were at. Here's a similar frame from BC. From seeing it, you can see how I figured where it was shot. Also this is the brightness I was thinking of although I understand that you like the way your image looks.
Hope you're feeling better and we can get out there and shoot together soon.
Take care

[Kirk Benson]

Hey Kirk,

I thought for sure this was shot at the bridge at BC. I know the spot you were at. Here's a similar frame from BC. From seeing it, you can see how I figured where it was shot. Also this is the brightness I was thinking of although I understand that you like the way your image looks.
Hope you're feeling better and we can get out there and shoot together soon.
Take care

Great shot David and the brighter (than mine) exposure looks really good. I probably won't repost a brighter version, but I'm definitely going to tinker with it for future images. Thanks for pushing me to rethink it, I tend to be a bit on the darker side of exposure so your suggestion is most helpful. I've disciplined myself to wait several days after processing an image before posting it anywhere, and that has helped me make adjustments that improve the image IMO. I'm still a couple months away from getting out again, but I look forward to shooting with you later on this year. Thanks again my friend. :S3:

Kirk

[Kirk Benson]

Per David Salem's suggestion I decided to repost a brighter version, thanks for pushing me to be better David. As a Nikon shooter I've used their Capture NX2 editing software exclusively until now. I just bought the D810 and the RAW files are not supported in CNX2 as they are phasing out that software, so I'm transitioning to LR5 & PSCC. Huge thanks to Gail Bisson for her invaluable help.

This is reworked from step one of the RAW file in LR5 & PSCC, and Color Efex Pro. Please let me know what you think, if something doesn't look right... still tweaking the workflow and new tools, and hopefully moving in the right direction. :S3:

Kirk

[David Salem]

Much better Kirk. Not only is it brighter but it has more feather detail and color looks better too. My good friend that you know, Glen, shoots with Nikon also and when we review each others files I find that the Nikon files look a little less "punchy" than my Canon files and a little extra saturation and blacks are needed to again the similar look. Not that anything is wrong with the Nikon stuff, just it needs to be processed a little different.
You are definitely moving in the right direction.

[Diane Miller]

A subtle improvement, all that was needed! I pulled both into PS to compare and see that the OP had a color profile of Nikon something-or-other, while the RP is sRGB as it should be for best viewing on the web. Are you new to PS CC? PS's default working color space is sRGB, which is best changed to AdobeRGB to take best advantage of the colors your camera can capture, and ProPhoto RGB if you know the pitfalls. Just thought I'd check....

If your PS working space is AdobeRGB or ProPhoto RGB, when you do a Save for Web, or (better) export from LR, you should specify sRGB as the color space. In Save for Web, check the box to embed the profile. LR will do it automatically.

[Binu John]

Fabulous shot, Kirk! The light and details are excellent. Very sharp! The RP is an improvement. TFS