Galápagos - Santiago Island - Galápagos Brown Pelican

[Claude Ostfeld]

Sometimes you happen to see something and you just raise your camera and "shoot".

There are eight species of Pelicans in the world and in the Americas there are 5 subspecies called "Brown Pelican" (Pelecanus occidentalis - i.e. Western Pelican). This one is native of the Galápagos and has the scientific name "Pelecanus occidentalis Urinator". I'll let you guess why the name (or nickname);)

Pelicans are interesting birds but can be aggressive both with people and with other birds.

D300s
Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D IF-ED + TC14
280mm
1/800
F16.0
EV -1.00
No Flash
Exposure Mode=Auto
Exposure Program=Program Normal
Date Time Original=2010:08:25 09:40:47

As always critique and suggestions are welcome.
As a note thise image was cropped from one that had a lot of lava in the foreground that was distracting.

TIA

Claude

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi. nice composition, though you need more space on the left. The image is somewhat underexposed, and I would guess quite a bit more before post processing. I think the negative exposure compensation was the root of the problem; for pelicans I usually overexpose at least a stop, and deal with the white head feathers in post processing (recovery, etc.). In any case, the high contrast light (harsh) makes brown pelican photos extremely difficult to expose properly, with the dark body plummage, and white head feathers.
No ISO was listed, and as I mentioned I'm guessing the image was underexposed, and it looks like the inevitable noise that shows up when trying to increase exposure later was dealt with by noise reduction, and a serious loss of image detail.
Immediately fly back to the Galapagos and try again!;););) Just kidding!!! Good thing is that this particular pelican looks almost identical to the regular brown pelican, so finding one closer to home shoudn't be too difficult. regards~Bill

[Claude Ostfeld]

Hi Bill,
ISO 400
I am actually thinking about returning to Galapagos to make use of the experience I gained while I was there. I don't know whether I'll be able to do it in 2011 but maybe in 2012. :)
I'll probably make a load of mistakes yet again but hopefully not the same ones. We'll see.
I tried some other post processing adjustments leaving the exposure compensation increase to 0.3.
I had cropped a bit too much the first time around because of all the lava at the bottom but I suppose the cavity seems to frame the pelican.
What do you think of this version?

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Cluaude: actually much better, and the for some reason detail is better too. I don't know if you have Photoshop CS5, but if you do content aware fill would make it easy to remove the rocks completely. regards~Bill

[Claude Ostfeld]

Thanks Bill, I have PS Elements but I'll follow your advice and try CS5. Thanks for your advice. It is much appreciated. Claude

[Julie Kenward]

Claude, I cannot get over the fact that you managed to frame the pelican in exactly the right way to fit between the rocks! That is such a hoot! I do like the repost better as well as he did feel tight in the frame on the left side.

One other suggestion for you is to clean up (clone) any of the water droplets that are so small they appear to just be a white fleck on the water's surface. Definitely keep the stuff close to the bird but the tiny white spots out on the open water could go and it would give you a much cleaner image both for viewing and for printing purposes.

Nice HA! A little more ss would have helped the front wing but all in all I like the image.

[Claude Ostfeld]

Jules and Bill,
I will have the write "droplets" removed and will post again.

As far as shutter speed is concerned I was walking close to the shoreline and all of a sudden a noddy (similar to a gull) tried to steal something from that pelican and i was casually looking in that direction. I heard the ruckus, lifted my camera and started to shoot a sequence. The two birds fighting came out so-so but this image came out nicely.

My experience of wildlife photography is that together with good equipement, training, studying, a wealth of patience and selecting good destinations, one of the components of a good photo is luck. If you are not looking in the right direction some things happen so fast that you "see" them but you can't capture them (on film or electronically) much less get a great composition.

That's why I now shoot in bursts of at least 10 to 20 at a time. At least one image will come out as is the case here (I do have a few more in focus but this one has the advantage of the "lava frame" that Jules likes so much).

In places where the fauna is captive you can use your tripod, think things over, use your light meter and so forth. In places like the Galapagos you need to have good reflexes and tons of disk space. You never have enough and for every interesting thing that you see there are 10 more that you miss.

Thank you all for the precious suggestions and advice.