Wandering Albatross

[Simon Bennett]

Wandering Albatross off Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand. Taken on 'Albatross Encounter' boat trip. This bird is the form known as Gibson's Albatross, regarded by some as a distinct species.

Canon 40D, EF70-200 f/4 IS @ 70mm, evaluative, ISO400, 1/640, f/8, highlight tone priority on, slight crop to remove tilt.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

That sounds like fun. I like the warm light, details and eye contact and wish the head were angled a bit more toward you. Does it need a bit CCW rotation?

[Tony Whitehead]

Looked like Kaikoura even from the thumbnail! Nice light and the boat gives a nice lowish angle - looks like a fairly calm day which is good. You've managed the whites well. Agree with Axel re head angle and CCW rotation.

[Robert O'Toole]

Gorgeous bird! Love all the sharpness and details.

Amazing that you were able to use a 70-200 at 70mm!

Agree with the head turn comments.

Robert

[Dan Brown]

Great bird and very nice shot! I agree with the head turn but it's close IMO. I also agree that the image needs a bit of rotation based on the lines in the BG water surface. The head seems a bit bright also. In the repost, I rotated CCW about 5 degrees (which resulted in a crop) and applied a bit of shadow/highlight to tone down the head.

The upload seems to have decreased the sharpness of your beautiful original post, but it seems to convey my intent ok.