Elephant Seal - I C U

[Jay Gould]

During my recent cruise to Antarctica, I had the honor of interacting daily with several professional photographers including Rod Planck (www.rodplanck.com (http://www.rodplanck.com)) one of the foremost nature photographers anywhere. After a couple of Planck presentations, I stated shooting "parts" rather than the "whole". This was one of the images I posted in the ship's critique forum; there were several group presentations where you were able to post five images.

Camera: 7D
Capture date/time: 13 Jan 10; 7:30AM
Light condition: overcast
Lens: 70-200 f/4
Focal length: 280mm
Extender: 0
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no;
ISO: 800
Exp Prog: Av
Speed: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/8
Exp Comp: 0
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: None
Processed in LR 3 (beta) and then CS4 - plus Topaz Suite and Pixel Genius Sharpening.
All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Pretty cool Jay. I would have tried to place the eye on one of the ROT points. well done. :)

[Jay Gould]

Thanks Akos; the thought behind the central placement is that I wanted the eye looking directly at you; I did not want to create a feeling of looking either up or down to you.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I think the effect would not have changed, just the compositional aesthetics. :)

[Julie Kenward]

Jay, I do like your composition because we get to see a sliver more of the eyebrow and facial whiskers but I think this is what Akos was talking about...it puts the eye closer to the ROT's position. Just another way to go. I think both image compositions work and think you caught some lovely details we normally would not get notice.

Only other thing I did to the image was punch up the lighter part of the pupil a bit and clone out a few small specs of bright sun near the eye.

[Charles Wesley]

Jay & Jules,

Great work. I like them both. Jay I took a course from Rod Planck in the late 80's. I see he's still a phenomenal instructor.

Thanks for sharing...
____________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

[Anita Bower]

That eye jumps right out at me. Wonderful! Taking an image of part of the animal is most effective here. The details are mesmerizing. I have a slight preference for Jules' crop and cleaning up. :)

[Jay Gould]

Jules, thank you very much for taking the time to repost my image. Another approach to an image is always educational. I like how you cleaned up the eye; however, for me I would not crop as I like the full eyelash and the additional body fold. Please feel free to rework/repost my images anytime. I will go to work on the eye! Thanks again.

[Jay Gould]

Jay & Jules,

Great work. I like them both. Jay I took a course from Rod Planck in the late 80's. I see he's still a phenomenal instructor.

Thanks for sharing...
____________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

Chuck, looking at your picture, if you took a course from Rod 20 years ago you must have been a child photographer. Rod is a great instructor and one of the funniest guys I have every met. Spending an afternoon with him in a Zodiak tooling around shooting ice bergs, penguins, and other subjects is a blast and I had the opportunity to do it a few times. Rod treated us to a retrospective of 2009 and it was an absolute treat.

The next time I am in the USA, a week with Planck is high on the photo instructor bucket list!