A wonderful bird is the Pelican!

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Captured using Canon 30D with 300mm F4 IS + 1.4X Con. (420-mm) 1/640 sec. F/10 ISO 400, Partial metering, shutter priority.

http://birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6775&stc=1&d=1204919020

[Mike Wilson]

Great looking bird. Could use a rotation and more USM. Love the shaking feathers and that wonderful eye of this species.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the pose and eye contact and agree with Mike regarding sharpening and CCW rotation. I would also raise the color temperature a tad as it has a slight blue cast.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Agree with Axel`s comments

[Arthur Morris]

What an eye ring. The bird is definitely swimming uphill. It would be great if you could get right in the water with the birds and photograph them at water level... later and love, artie

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Thanks folks, how is this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/cookie99/IMG_5404_2.jpg

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Color temperature looks better but you overcompensated the rotation. Now he swims downhill. :) I might crop a bit off the top, but not too much.

[Arthur Morris]

Better, but see the leveling tutorial in Educational Resources and your rotations will always be prefect to 1/10 of one degree. later and love, artie

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

It would be great if you could get right in the water with the birds and photograph them at water level... later and love, artie

I am ahead of you Artie, just bought a pair of chest high waders, a good monopod and ballhead and loaded up my Nikonos V with slide film for backup and I am off to the Gippsland lakes for Easter and will do my best to get you some good water level shots (also an inflatable life jacket in the event of the inevitable dunking):)

Thanks folks how is this one (I am also on the tutorial):)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/cookie99/IMG_5404_3.jpg

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Much better! Here is a version with slightly increased saturation and sharpened a bit.

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Thanks Axel, looks good.

I am going through Tim Greys book on CS3 that I bought through John Cooper whilst waiting for Artie's book to be re-released.

Thanks folks, your blood's worth bottling.

[Maxis Gamez]

In this real??? Wow! Looks like he is made out of plastic.

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Very real Maxis, here is the rest of his family.:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/cookie99/IMG_5028rz800x600.jpg