I swear...it was THIS BIG!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Taken on quite a foggy morning at Estero lagoon in Feb. It slowly came in from quite a ways back and I just followed it in my viewfinder and "bumped" the autofocus periodically until it was close enough to where I wanted. Man, the push-pull zoom design is great for this type of situation. As I knew it was going to stop and land just in front of us I did not press the shutter button until it put on the "mid-air" brakes. This is the first of a 3 frame burst (the other two being OOF). I'm undecided about the "habitat" top of the frame, but the image looks quite sterile with it not there.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @200mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/320s., f/7.1, ISO 640, +2 EC (metered off water and histogram checked), handheld, very slight trim bottom and right for composition.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_BrownPelican_8986-01.jpg

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Daniel,

Excellent flight image. I would remove the distraction in the top right corner!!

[David Roach]

Love the pose, details, wing tip blur and the environment at the top! Congrats!!

[Lowell Sims]

Great pose - looks like it is going to land in your lap.

[Stephen Stephen]

Dan nice capture with just a hint of wing tip blurr. I'd also remove the top right OOF item.

[Mike Lentz]

Yep, clone out the top right corner. Great exposure and patience waiting for that exact right moment!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Nicely captured. I remember that morning. I wonder if you could bring up just enough detail and a hint of the color in the water, to eliminate the sense that the habitat in the URC is just floating in mid air!

Just a thought to improve a nice picture.

Cheers

Randy

[denise ippolito]

Daniel, Nice!! Love the landing pose and details look great-Well done!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Here is a quick pass at what I meant. It all depends on your vision for the picture, but for me, the changes help establish the environment, give it a bit more sense of location.

Cheers

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose and I like the exposure in Randy's repost better. Another vote for removing the darker area in the upper right.

[Ramon M. Casares]

My vote for removing the dark area and also for the repost, specially because in the repost the bird pops out much more :) Congratulations!

[Stu Bowie]

A superb headon shot Daniel. You have captured the outspread wings at their best, and I like Randy's repost of the BG. Still, very well captured.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Outstanding head-on shot Daniel. I love that wingspread. No nits.

[Steve Maxson]

Your title sounds like a fish story to me, Daniel. :) I like the pose you captured and I'm a big fan of the repost. I have mixed feelings about the habitat in the URC. On the one hand, it gives the image a sense of place, but on the other side, it draws my eye away from the bird.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Randy, nice repost. I may just rework this image...but I think somewhere between the two would work best. My version resembles more of what I remember the conditions being that morning - but your explanation of your repost makes sense. Thanks!

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Daniel.

I often have to think about an image, is my recollection of it adding a context to it, that might not be apparent or obvious to another person just seeing the image in isolation. In this case, I just thought, that the added information from the repost helped me place the image better in my mind. It added some context that helped me get it.

Cheers

Randy