Surfbird

[Nancy Bell]

Photographed on the central Oregon coast, Aug. 2011. I found a lovely little cove protected from the full fury of the ocean by a line of huge rugged rocks. Inside the cove were still more rocks, some that were accessible during low tide. Birds seemed to love this area and if you don't mind standing in water you could get quite close.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 400 f4 DO IS + 1.4x, 1/1000, f8, exp. comp. -1/3, ISO 400, tripod

All c & c most welcome.

[Arthur Morris]

With the dark subterminal bands and the white fringes on the scaps and coverts this is a relatively fresh juvenile. Way cool. Love the blue water BKGR. It looks much sharper on the body than on the head and face.... Where was the AF sensor???

[David Pugsley]

Agree with Artie about the head looking a bit soft. Love the rocks, background and pose. The color balance looks abit cool, but that may just be my iPad.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice pose and composition. The BG is excellent. I don't know guys, eye and face look as sharp as the body from my end (perhaps I'm too tired:S3:). I do agree the WB seems cool though.

[DanWalters]

Very nice. Really like the head turn and the blue background.

[Tom Rambaut]

I find the BG too blue - my taste is bland! The right of the face seems softer than the left side? I do like the pose. TFS

[Nancy Bell]

Focus point is middle rectangle, top row, covering 1/2 eye and extending towards the back of the head, including those tiny fluffy feathers. I'll try another round of sharpness. I did reduce the blue saturation some already. With mostly blues and grays, what is a good method to "warm" this up that does not deepen the blue or change the whites? I used auto white balance.

Glad to know it is a juvie.

[ramesh anantharaman]

Everything really done well. Just the focus as mentioned before and a light blue cast on the bird on my monitor.

[Karl Egressy]

Great finding and beutiful pose captured, of this rare to see bird, Nancy.

[gail bisson]

I love the pose. Great even BG but would desaturate it a bit. Eye looks sharp to me.
Gail

[noelle zaleski]

I agree, looks cool to me.

Very nice little pose he gave you :S3:

[Chad Caswell]

Agree with WB being cool, also would take a tad off the top as well, very nice pose from him:w3 Nice and sharp.