"The Cartoon Pelican"

[David Salem]

Here is another one from my great trip to Australia. These Pelicans are so cool and so funny looking we all thought that they looked like a cartoon character. I got images of a few but they must have been females or young males because this guy was the only one I got with this beautiful red and blue color on his bill and gular.
This was taken on the front of my buddy Ian McLachlan's small boat, "The Peregrine". We only had a day and a half at this location and the weather wasn't great but if I could go back to Oz again I would love to ride in the front of his boat again. We cruised along the river at about 30mph as I sat on a nice swivel seat up front and as we saw birds on the shore or in the trees Ian would turn the moving boat towards them and I would be shooting way as the birds took off. It was a great way to shoot BIF because the moving boat was very stable and gave us a great opportunity to get close to some flighty birds.
Thanks again Ian!!

D5---840mm---f5.6---ss1/2000th---ISO3200---Hand held from moving boat@5:30pm---35% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it

David

[Isaac Grant]

Looks great Dave. Awesome bird and techs look perfect as usual. Beautiful smooth background as well. BIF is too easy for you so you have upped the Ante to BIF while boating! :w3

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool Dave, love the pose and details, they look nicer than ours. looks like you got a good hang of processing D5 files too, this one is clean and shows no grain

TFS

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Cool colors....

Nice Wing position. I like the soft light and colors on the birds..

TFS

[annmpacheco]

Fab Dave, perfecto and what gorgeous colors with the blacks and whites that are exposed beautifully at 3200ISO. Details throughout. What a fun shooting experience you had in that swivel chair!

[gail bisson]

It looks like someone took a marker to his eye and face and colored it in. I sure hope I see one!
Geat frame. Perfect wing stroke, tack sharp and nice BG.
I have never seen these guys in real life. Are the feathers brown, chocolate brown or black? I think I see a blue cast in the browns but I could be wrong,
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely and impressive image.......... my eye soon went to the darker feathers and I too think there is a blue cast, otherwise great image.

[dankearl]

Superb shot of this Incredible bird.

[John Mack]

Killer as always. This reminds me of a hot rod for some reason.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone!!
Glad you like this comical looking subject!!

[David Salem]

It looks like someone took a marker to his eye and face and colored it in. I sure hope I see one!
Geat frame. Perfect wing stroke, tack sharp and nice BG.
I have never seen these guys in real life. Are the feathers brown, chocolate brown or black? I think I see a blue cast in the browns but I could be wrong,
Gail
I didn't really look that hard but Gail and Jonathan are right. There is bit of blue in the wings.

A quick selection of the wing only and a decrease in only th blue channel fixed this up really quick

Thanks Gail for looking out:bg3:

[Ian McLachlan]

These Pelicans are pretty universal in Aus . The boat driver was simply copying what happens if you go with David at SoCal but at a half the speed!.

This is either male of female in 'courtship flush' as indicated by the pink. I think they have just remade a film called 'storm boy' which is all about one of these beautiful birds .Worth seeing Im told. I'm not sure about other pelicans but these often fly in great V formations up to 60 or more in the group.

Black is the right colour for the wings .

Great shot David butI think i forgot to tell you that the swivel seat is fitted with VR.

Ian

[Frank Schauf]

Wow, nice flight pose and great details.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image David! Great IQ, sharpness, clean BG and composition.

[Tim Foltz]

Dave, Sweet image of an awesome looking Peli, I wish ours looked like that.
Great colors, details and wing position, very nice.

-Tim

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dave, nothing short of what we expect from you these days. You have raised your own bar, so each image just gets better and better. Excellent flight pose with the downstroke of the wings, and overall tack sharp. The detail and colour around the head is simply stunning. I wasnt aware the Ozzie Pelicans looked like this. Dont expect SA Pelicans to look like this. Ours are plain drab white. Even your brown Pelicans are better looking than ours. :bg3: Congrats on a great capture bud.

[David Salem]

These Pelicans are pretty universal in Aus . The boat driver was simply copying what happens if you go with David at SoCal but at a half the speed!.

This is either male of female in 'courtship flush' as indicated by the pink. I think they have just remade a film called 'storm boy' which is all about one of these beautiful birds .Worth seeing Im told. I'm not sure about other pelicans but these often fly in great V formations up to 60 or more in the group.

Black is the right colour for the wings .

Great shot David butI think i forgot to tell you that the swivel seat is fitted with VR.

Ian

Thanks again Ian!!
Great job with the VR on the tinny:bg3:

[Mike Poole]

Fantastic looking pelican - I could photograph these all day long given the chance! Perfect wing position, superb frame

Mike

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone!!

Thanks so much Stu for your really nice comment.
I greatly appreciate your friendship and your thoughtful comments!!

Thanks Mike, I was posting while you were commenting.

[Arthur Morris]

Killer frame and image with a completely surreal eye. In a perfect world, I do not think that you would have minded a bit more head turn toward us. If I ever make it Down Under, this would be my most wanted subject.
with love, a

[William Dickson]

Lovely looking frame David. Gotta love that eye. Well processed as per norm..Love the colours throughout. Well captured.

Will

[David Salem]

Killer frame and image with a completely surreal eye. In a perfect world, I do not think that you would have minded a bit more head turn toward us. If I ever make it Down Under, this would be my most wanted subject.
with love, a
Thanks Artie! You are right about the HA and I also wish the head didn't intersect the rear wing but we take what we can get. See ya soon.

Thanks as always William!!

[Dumay de Boulle]

Amazing image David. Great wing position and perfect head and Eye...Amazing image!