Northern Gannet....Close Up

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX Mk2
f/4 400mm DO Mk2 at 560mm
f/5.6
1/2000
ISO 1000

I captured this image at the weekend from a boat, the sea was choppy, but we managed to get close to the Bass Rock, where these birds nest...

Will

[William Dickson]

For those who don't know the Bass Rock....This is it, a small island on Scotland's east coast...Home to 150,000 Gannets, making it the largest Gannetry on the planet.

191878

[John Mack]

Nice detail on the gannet. I do like the preening pose. The wide shot of the rock is neat. That 's alot of birds.

[Arthur Morris]

Been there, all the way through the mud to the top. Nice work on bird. The rock BKGR? Not so much for me.

with love, a

[Colin Driscoll]

I've been in a smaller Gannet colony and it's hard to know where to point the camera with so much on offer.
You did well from a boat, not much option for the BG I guess.

[Kurt Bowman]

I like the behavior in this one and nice detail. Agree about the BG but they live on a rock, what can you do about it?

[Brian Sump]

Will, first off that island is NUTS. Wow, would love to visit there!

The portrait is super intimate. I love the details here and you did a great job with dof considering.

In a perfect world, a touch more eye view would be awesome but I'd take this one.

You might consider taking a peek at adding a few points of warmth and mild tint bump as it would 'open' it up, as some might say.

Really nicely captured, thank you my friend!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Will ... nice portrait of this preening behavior .
All around it does work for me and I think the color and tones are looking very good and realistic .
You did a really good job getting this fine detail from a chopping boat !!!

Cool work Will .

TFS Andreas

[William Dickson]

Thanks for all the comments, much appreciated....Hey Brian, if you ever get the chance to visit Scotland, I'll take you to the Bass Rock, it's only an hours drive from where I live....I had plenty of SS for a perched bird, and looking back I should have went to f/7.1....But, with all the birds flying around the boat, it was pretty much like Colin said, there was so many birds flying around, what to focus on, was a quick decision.....this was basically a grab shot, as I noticed the bird perched on a clean part of the rock...Most of the rock was covered in the white stuff, as you can imagine....150,000 birds on a rock....there is a lot of the white stuff....


Will