Sebastian White Pelican...

[Dan O'Leary]

I often struggle with the crop when the bird is looking across the direction of its body. Curious what folks will think of this one.

2008:01:13 15:50:05
1dm3 at 310mm (100-400mm)
1/1600 sec, f/8, Av, Eval +1 1/3, ISO 1000

Not the best shooting solution. The bird was overexposed by about 1/3 stop and ISO 1000 was clearly not necessary. I was able to recover most of the whites in the raw conversion and noise ninja helped with the background.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice details and eye contact. A lower angle would have helped here. The light looks rather harsh and I might give it more room on the left side.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the framing and would take some off the bottom. A reverse S-Curve might tone the contrast down a bit. I like it. And good to see you working right down your shadow line...

later and love, artie

[Jody Melanson]

I like the composition on this, Dan. Agree with Artie on shooting down the shadow line and agree with Axel on a lower angle to improve this beautiful image.

[Blake Shadle]

I like the composition in this image, also (although I agree a little off the bottom would make it stronger). Typically when a subject is looking back over it's body, I leave more room in the direction he's looking and pin his body to the opposite side of the frame. Great details in the whites. I like the light here because it's give the image a very sharp, clean look.

[Dan O'Leary]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It thrills me that you enjoyed it. I've taken your feedback to heart and have prepared this update. In it I darkened the water, toned down the whites a tad and cropped a bit more off the bottom. I think this is a big improvement.

I've recently started using the "remove lens blur" option in CS3's smart sharpen and am amazed by the results. Hopefully I'm not getting carried away with it here. Please let me know if you feel the sharpening could be improved.

Thanks again for the feedback and for posting inspiring work of your own. I couldn't hope for a better panel of "judges."

[Dan O'Leary]

Here's a quick and dirty proof of what I started with. I am posting this before / after as a testament to shooting in RAW. The color of the water here was not working for me - I wanted a blue water look. One quick change to the white balance and viola!