pair bond

[John Chardine]

I was trawling through some images from last year and I came across this one of a pair of Black-legged Kittiwakes made at Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland. The female on the right is food begging to the male and he eventually fed her with a nice mess of euphausids (krill). BTW I did my doctoral thesis on this species 30 years ago now but I still have a big soft-spot for them.

As you can see the light was very harsh and almost overhead at midday. Nothing I could do about this other than to expose for the highlights and let the chips fall. Turned out at ISO 400 to have enough dynamic range to capture the whites of the birds and the browns of the rock cliff behind.

I cropped, cleaned up the BG a little and ran some NR there. The eyes were gently dodged to bring out a bit of detail.

Comments welcome of course!

Canon EOS 50D, 500 mm f4
capture date: 3 June 2009 11:34 AM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/2500
aperture: f8.0
exposure bias: -1.3
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Stu Bowie]

Hi John, good job on the whites, no blown pixels from here. Its always good to capture a behavioural image, and well timed to get the inter-mingling beaks. Well done on getting detail from the BG too.

[Dave Leroy]

A very nice soft touch here John. Well done.
I was wondering if a crop on left to remove the bg and creating a bit of a diagonal would make an improvement or not.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interaction and sharpness look great. I might lighten the shadow of the bills.

[Rob Miner]

I like Axel's suggestion to "lighten the shadow of the bills." I would not suggest any other changes. I think you could change the position of the birds in your mind forever and not really convince yourself that you have done better than the original. Truly a shot that I value.

Rob....................

[Tony Whitehead]

Great intimate interaction, John. I really like the colours and textures of the bills and the eye contact between the two. A little fill flash may have tamed the contrast ratio a bit but having the rock dark is good. I think Axel's suggestion is worth exploring and I would try and open up the shaded part of the male's face a little too. I can see why you have a soft spot for these birds.

[Lana Hays]

John
I would have to think that any bird used as the basis of a doctoral dissertation would forever have a place in the heart. A wonderful behavioral image....and well done given the lighting. Cape St. Marys is an incredible and magical place.....where there's good light.

[John Chardine]

Many thanks for all the great comments and suggestions. Here, I've recropped with a little off the left. Also lightened the shadows as suggested. The differences are pretty subtle.

[Paul Lagasi]

Nice capture John..its a Kodak moment for sure...oops meant Canon..TFS

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the moment that you captured here!