Been Swamped

[Arthur Morris]

It is day 4 of the San Diego IPT. 1 1/2 days to go. It is a great group (as usual). Though we did kill 'em for the first two days, the pelicans have been spotty. I created this one on the first morning (at seven fifty-three am) in sweet, sweet light with the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS 1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/9.

Don't be shy; all comments are welcome.

[Bob Pelkey]

When I see an image like this, I think it belongs to AM or someone who emulated him. The pelicans out west certainly one up the beauty of ours here in Florida.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

There was a recent thread with a La Jolla pelican, and folks wondered if the water there really was so blue. I mentioned that it usually is pretty impressive.

This image supports the other thread!

Nice that the head is lifted enough to show the color on the neck and the pouch.

Cheers

Randy

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Sweet light and pose! love the blue BG and eye contact. :S3:

[Terry Olmsted]

Spectacular portrait, Artie - I love the detail and colors as wells as the bg. On my monitor it looks just a bit pixelated (sp?)/slightly oversharpened, i.e. lots of little white spots, but otherwise, eye candy!
Terry

[denise ippolito]

Artie, Beautiful pose, sharpness and exposure!:S3:

[nancy hazen]

Stuning Shot. I've been looking forward to seeing some shots from your workshop. We found the same problem with the pelicans. They started gathering on the lower cliffs.
Nancy

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. No white spots here :)

[ChasMcRae]

As usual beautiful exposure ,positioning and composition.
Ugly looking head-must be a Marine !

[Stu Bowie]

Your pelicans are so much more colourful than ours here in SA. Super comp and HA, and as mentioned, just love the colours.

[Nico Steenberg]

Incredible detail and IQ. Great exposure and colours. Like the crop and bg. Well done Arther.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

The look, head angle, eye contact and blue BG is what catches my attention. The bird pops very nicely, fantastic image. I always add lot's of sharpening to my images so I feel sharpening is ok:cheers::cheers:

[Arthur Morris]

Any time that you have relatively still ocean water more than 100 yards beyond your subject in early morning light you will enjoy those incredible light blue backgrounds, in part because the water is reflecting the light, low blue sky just above the horizon. See more on that here (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2011/01/21/using-the-right-tool-surf-scoter-image-quiz-comments/). It is the converse to the answer to question #4.

[James Salywoda]

Gorgeous head shot that bg really makes the Pelican look 3 dimensional.

[Troy Lim]

Great shot...always enjoy seeing your pelican shots.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, I liked this vertical pano crop a lot. perfect for this pose. HA, exposure, BG, colors...signature stuff from you.

[Brendan Dozier]

I agree, this one really pops with BG, great colors, detail, and more than anything, I love its expression that you've captured. Looks very happy and content.