Royal penguin

[greg cowle]

Royal penguin marching up a stony section of Sandy Bay on Macquarie Island (Aust.), where the royal penguin is endemic.
Canon 1DXII and 400/2.8, handheld.
f6.3, 1/1250, ISO1600. Full frame height, cropped L&R for the aspect ratio.
Gentle adjustments in LR, background is the beach and hill around the bay.
I like the raised foot and the wet crown blowing in the wind, but interested to get critique.

Greg

[Colin Driscoll]

Good portrait Greg from a very far away place! Probably just a bit tight in the frame at the bottom but you would have needed to back up to change that. More importantly, if you dodge that eye there is a lovely red iris and black pupil hiding in the shadow that will give more life to the bird.

[greg cowle]

Thanks Colin, was full frame, no opportunity to move back for this particular one. The royals are not afraid to approach photographers! Brightened the eye in LR, agree with giving it more pop.
Greg

[Isaac Grant]

Nice walking pose you have here and of a bird that I would love to see. You also have a nice and varied background. I think you would have been better off shooting from up higher so that you could have gotten the feet in the frame. Also wish you had a slightly more engaging head angle. I think the background would benefit from a little noise reduction.

[greg cowle]

Thanks Isaac, I appreciate the feedback. One thing I was trying to do at this time was isolate a single royal, and that is really difficult at the colony. They are really interactive with each other, and also not afraid to approach photographers. A fun place to spend a few hours! I see exactly what you say about the angle, but in this case if I was higher I would have got other birds lower down that little mound of rocks. I got a few in this immediate sequence, the others had both feet down or less interesting crown blowing in the wind.
Greg