Brown Pelican (molting adult?)

[Dan Brown]

I captured this guy yesterday at Point Reyes, Marin co, CA. I was on a cliff with a good wind for the birds to fight in their faces as they attempted to reach a protected feeding area. Cropped (15%) and P P'ed in ACR, CS3, sharpened with Nik Sharpner Pro. C&C welcome.

Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 400mm
Focal length: 600mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: AF-C

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice flyby, I also like the eye contact and might sharpen a bit less.

[Keith Bauer]

Hi Dan: Nice flight shot. Interesting wing position. I like it. The sky color feels a bit odd. Maybe that is what it looked like?

[Stu Bowie]

These guys are such graceful flyers, and wish for the wings to have been fully up or down. I like the overall detail, and would maybe take a bit off the top.

[Dan Brown]

Hi Dan: Nice flight shot. Interesting wing position. I like it. The sky color feels a bit odd. Maybe that is what it looked like?

Hi Kieth! Thanks for the comments. As for the sky, I did a slight levels adjust to darken it, but just a bit.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Agree with Axel on preferring a bit less sharpening. And I would put a bit more room in front of the bird. Like the pose and eye contact. Sky looks fine to me. JR

[Morkel Erasmus]

ditto some oversharpening. great detail and pose here, another vote for more room up front...

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Pretty good work Dan. I like it, also sharpen it just a bit less. More room in front is mandatory - I think too. :)

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice shot Dan,
Point Reyes has always been a dissapointment for me, too much wind and no birds, you got lucky with this one. Light seems to have been a bit harsh but detail is good, it looks oversharpened on my screen, but nice pose. like the catch light.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The oversharpening has been mentioned enough times already so I won't mention it again :-) I like the seemingly eye-level angle.

[Harshad Barve]

lovely HA, BG intresting wing position , nice low level shot

[Dan Brown]

Ok fellas! here's an unsharpened version. As for the room in front of the bird, I like the comp as is due to the weight of the birds body being in the right side of the frame but that's just MHO!:) Thanks for the constructive comments.

[Harshad Barve]

Repost is fantastic
TFS