Brown Pelican

[Eric Freeman]

This is my first photo post here. This pelican gave me a close fly-by, probably checking to see if I had a hand-out for him (the local pelicans are used to getting bait from people fishing).

Taken December 28, 2011, 7:51am
Waveland, MS
Canon T1i
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L lens
1/1250 second, f/6.3, ISO 200
Minimal post-processing. Sharpened, levels and curves adjusted. A few white specks on his (her?) belly cloned out.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/7082216603_3f9a75fc9b_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scubadude1960/7082216603/)
Brown pelican, revisited #3 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scubadude1960/7082216603/) by ScubaDude1960 (http://www.flickr.com/people/scubadude1960/), on Flickr

[Randy Stout]

Eric:

A big welcome to BPN! You will find it a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer.

I like the quality of the light, the birds angle in the frame, slightly towards us, nice blue in the sky.

The cropping is a bit tight all the way around, and I always like room for them to fly into.

For most birds, a full down, or full up wing position is more desirable, because it shows more of the wing detail.

Your exposure looks good.

Again, welcome to BPN, look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image.Nice composition.I like the colors and sharpness.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Eric, a big welcome to BPN!!! Randy's given you some good advice and I concure. Great light!

Hoping to see more from you...and don't forget to critique others' works too - all part of the fun :-)

[christopher galeski]

nice one,nice detail and colors,agree on a bit more room all round.

[Eric Freeman]

Thanx for the c&c, everybody. I have several different crops of this shot. I picked this one to post because I got several comments on other forums saying that there was too much space around it (I actually liked it with more space, myself). This one, however, is good for using as my PC background, as the pelican is bigger and more detail is seen.