Southern Royal Albatross

[gail bisson]

Off Kaikoura, New Zealand.
From a pelagic boat trip, attracted by chum.
These birds are amazing. Their wing span just blew me away and yet, they can tuck those wings in perfectly.
Canon 1 DX 100-400mm v.2
ISO 2000 F 6.3 SS 1/2000
About 75% FF. Nothing added or cloned.
FYI- The water color is accurate as is the pale pink bill.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Colin Driscoll]

Terrific shot Gail, love the water and bow wave.
Neat direct frontal pose and exposure.
A little more dof would have been nice.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Love him/her cresting the wave, throwing a big bow wake, right down the barrel pose, framing of the bird.

I am curious what your settings were. I suspect with all the movement of your boat and the bird/waves, that you were forced to shoot at a high shutter speed, and fairly wide open, hence the reduced DOF.

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

Thanks for the comments guys. I am sorry I did not include my EXIF data.
ISO 2000 f 6.3 SS 1/2000.
The bird is about 2 feet long so there is no way to get everything in the DOF. I was just trying to get the face/bill in focus.

[kevin Hice]

Beautiful bird Gail,and processed very well as usual . Like that straight on look and I don't know how you got that low angle off the boat.All that matters is well focused. TFS

[Mike Poole]

My kind of shot, low angle, some environmental interest, and even though I don't normally favour on shots tis one is so 'down the barrel' it works

Mike

[Geoffrey Montagu]

What a super capture, Gail. Great low POV surfing the crest of the swell. The colors are beautiful, and your control of the whites look spot on.


Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[dankearl]

Outstanding POV, no way you could get anymore DOF if you shot at f22...
Great subject!

[Bill Dix]

Wonderful head-on look, great POV, and I love the water texture.

[David Roach]

What an opportunity. As usual, this canvas is spot on everywhere. The wave, the pressure wave, the pose, the BG and even the DOF. TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

Yeah, this is what you want from this head-on shot. Love the symmetry and the waves really adds some nice motion.

[John Mack]

Nice how the bird is riding that wave. Works well dead center. Nice detail. Love the color in the water.

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a fun image this is!! I love the colours, low angle (surely more of it high on a wave), and straight-on stare. Dof is A-OK with me, but I do feel that the critical focus seems to be on the bow-wave rather than the eyes. I don't mind it though as this is pretty unique image.