Galapagos 2010 #1: Calamari

[Arthur Morris]

Got home at dinner time yesterday after a l-o-n-g travel day. (I woke at 1:36 am Quito time yesterday morning....) I was hassled for gear documentation at customs in Orlando; see the next Bulletin for the whole story. The trip--my first two week venture--was fabulous. Denise Ippolito was along as co-leader. The group--but for one unfortunate unhappy camper--was great.

This image of a Swallow-tailed Gull feeding regurgitated squid to its chick was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens handheld at 144mm with the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/500 sec. at f/5 set manually after histogram check.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Swallow-tailed Gulls are nocturnal feeders. On my seven previous Galapagos trips I had seen only a few large chicks. This year we saw dozens of large chicks and many small chicks on several islands. It was a great breeding year for this species.

I will be publishing 14 more daily journal entries on my blog (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/). The first, "Galapagos Day 1/July 6: Bachas" was published last night. After the last journal entry is posted I hope to get the whole series up on BPN.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Good to see you back safely.
Nice shooting angle, graphic food item, well exposed.
The eye contact with adult is limited by the feeding pose, but the bright orange eye rings help a lot.
If the background allows, I might go just a bit wider on the left (more canvas)

Cheers

Randy

[Harshad Barve]

This is absolute stunner and I was waiting for Galapagos images , Lovely expressions on face of chick , Can't wait to see other images
TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Artie:

Good to see you back safely.
Nice shooting angle, graphic food item, well exposed.
The eye contact with adult is limited by the feeding pose, but the bright orange eye rings help a lot.
If the background allows, I might go just a bit wider on the left (more canvas)

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy. No room anywhere on the ORIG. Assuming that you mean our left, I am unsure as to why you would want more canvas there with the chick looking to our right :confused::confused:

[Arthur Morris]

This is absolute stunner and I was waiting for Galapagos images , Lovely expressions on face of chick , Can't wait to see other images
TFS

Thanks Harshad. Be sure to check the Blog every day for the next two weeks :)

[Harshad Barve]

Absolute pleasure to read blog Guruji , Lovely images of warbler, red crab ( ?) and Greater Flamingo and Striated Heron with catch, Can't wait for daily dose

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Randy. No room anywhere on the ORIG. Assuming that you mean our left, I am unsure as to why you would want more canvas there with the chick looking to our right :confused::confused:

Yes, our left. To my eye the mass of the adult would balance better with a bit of negative space to the left. The chicks focus for me is really up towards the food, so that doesn't influence the crop choice.
Perhaps my impression is influenced by how tight the overall crop is.

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Randy. Different strokes... :)

ps: I have a single opening for 2011 right now....

[Ofer Levy]

Nice and interesting behaviour shot! I guess you could easily use higher ISO+slower shutter speed+smaller aperture to get more DOF for the legs and chick.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice and interesting behaviour shot! I guess you could easily use higher ISO+slower shutter speed+smaller aperture to get more DOF for the legs and chick.

Thanks Ofer for the suggestion. My style has always been to focus on the eye and forget about the rest. No reason to change now :) Plus, I would have needed a ton more ISO to get even close to rendering the legs sharp....

[Ken Lassman]

Will leave the tech critiques to the experts...great moment captured Artie. Welcome back and looking forward to seeing the rest of the pics from the trip

[Aidan Briggs]

Hey Artie. Great interaction here. Nice low angle and soft light too. I like the rocky beach. I might sharpen the birds just a tad more though.

Glad to see you back!!

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Artie. Great interaction here. Nice low angle and soft light too. I like the rocky beach. I might sharpen the birds just a tad more though. Glad to see you back!!

Thanks Aiden. You are correct. When I looked at the posted JPEG I thought the same thing :)

This should be better. (The generic JPEG sharpening in my 800 JPEG action was not enough for this image.)

[Aidan Briggs]

The repost is just about perfect :)

[Gal Shon]

It seems like an absolute joy being so close to this wonderful moment,
I find the repost much better, I would just sharpen it a bit less.

[Hendri Venter]

If this is the start I cant wait for the follow ups. Fantastic image Artie and I echo all good comments above.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Artie,
Repost rocks - particularly love those eyes! Welcome home :)
Best,
Nicki

[arash_hazeghi]

Repost brought the image to life!I would not sharpen any less. Very interesting food item I like how the chick is pulling to the leg.TFS

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, loved the repost more. Awesome behavior shot and I like how the chick is looking up and straight into the camera.

[Mike Tracy]

I think it could have been improved upon if you had moved to your left a wee bit. That would have enabled the chicks eye not to be obstructed and the adults right eye to be more visually prominent.

I like the feather detail on the adults head and the softness of the chicks.

[Ofer Levy]

Thanks Ofer for the suggestion. My style has always been to focus on the eye and forget about the rest. No reason to change now :) Plus, I would have needed a ton more ISO to get even close to rendering the legs sharp....
No worries Artie. However, since many young photographers learn from you and since this is a critique forum where we all gathered in order to learn and improve I thought I will mention it and add some more:
The Mark IV can easily go iso 800 and even 1000 with clean result which could give you quite a few extra centimeters when working with such a short focal length. Focusing on the eye is not always a good idea if you got more than just few centimeters as in this case as you are wasting some of the area in front of the focus point.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The repost looks better on my monitor, too, but I'm with Gal about sharpening a tad less than in the repost.

[Michael Stern]

Artie,
Really neat image...I am for the repost!!!;)
Mike

[Troy Lim]

Really like the repost a lot. TFS.

[Arthur Morris]

It seems like an absolute joy being so close to this wonderful moment, I find the repost much better, I would just sharpen it a bit less.

I agree. I overdid the sharpening. Yikes! Thanks all for your comments. Tons more images and info on the blog with more coming each day; I am publishing my daily journals there now that I am home. :)

[Krijn Trimbos]

I agree a little less sharpening on the repost would do the trick. Mighty fine interaction shot and food item is over the top. I like the crop, but would be tempted to take out the line right behind the adult bird, I think it is a part of the OOF tail, and the line just at the beginning of the knee, both right in the frame. Apart from that this is really cool especially the red around the eyes. TFS

[Doug Brown]

Repost is a big improvement IMO. Looking forward to more Galapagos images Artie!

[Arthur Morris]

I agree a little less sharpening on the repost would do the trick. Mighty fine interaction shot and food item is over the top. I like the crop, but would be tempted to take out the line right behind the adult bird, I think it is a part of the OOF tail, and the line just at the beginning of the knee, both right in the frame. Apart from that this is really cool especially the red around the eyes. TFS

I would hate to remove the poor bird's tail :) Thanks all for your comments and do see tons more Galapagos stuff every day on the blog.

[Krijn Trimbos]

Don't worry Artie I don't think he/she will feel a thing ;) But I understand where you're comming from if that is indeed its tail. Cool shot nonetheless, wish it was mine! :cheers:

[Arthur Morris]

Don't worry Artie I don't think he/she will feel a thing ;) But I understand where you're comming from if that is indeed its tail. Cool shot nonetheless, wish it was mine! :cheers:

It is. I am glad that there is no crying from you! :)

[Krijn Trimbos]

:D LOL, good to have you back!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks. It's good to be back posting. I am still planning to visit you next April if I do not go to Midway then.... If I do, then the next year for sure.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Very cool image, I like the comp very much, (imaginary line leading from chick's bill to parent's bill via the calamari).

Considering the sharpness, I've noticed that sometimes, the sharpness looks very different when viewed in PS and in a browser. Was that the case here? Not sure why this happens, difference in contrast on a scale of pixel perhaps, but why???

Waiting for more from Galapagos....

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Ilija. I am not sure of the reason for the varying appearance of JPEG sharpness.... No need to wait, check out the blog for lots more Galapagos images :)

[James Salywoda]

The repost looks fantastic and you really captured the moment. Well Done Artie.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Welcome back Artie. Wonderful moment captured in this image and look forward to your future posts !!

[Art Kornienko]

Great timing, a more contrasting bg would have been nice, is that the 70-200 F4L IS?

[Arthur Morris]

Yes, the 70-200 f/4L IS, not the 70-200 f/F as I typed originally :)