Northern Gannet - Incoming

http://www.pbase.com/acwildlife/imag...6/original.jpg


Last week we had a holiday in Yorkshire England, where there's the largest Mainland Seabird Colony in the UK, RSPB Bempton Cliffs. I'd been before and many different images can be had. The Birds were trying to land high on the cliffs to collect nesting material and were often pushed away by the Gannets already there so these "wings out, brakes on" shots were obtainable.

I've been a bit unsure of my processing style lately so I went back to basics and threw in some tips from well known names. I processed through lightroom 5 ( trying the trial out), and CS6, normally it's purely CS6. I made sure to bump the saturation/vibrancy as it's worked better for me in the past and I feel my images may have been a little flat lately. A little Cloning was done to the water as a few stray birds were showing as blobs in the images and a few dark waves.

Gear used : Canon 60D, Canon 300mm F2.8 L IS MK II, ISO 400, F6.3, 1/2500 in Aperture Priority, Cropped to about 8 Megapixels.

Any Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ashley:

I like the incoming pose, esp. the feet!

Well exposed, composed.

I might consider toning done the lighter green areas. They are just bright enough to compete with the bird.

Overall, well done.

Cheers

Randy

nice flight pose,sharp with good detail,well exposed,nice light,not over keen with the veg on right,well done.

Thanks for the comments so far :)

I quite like the cliff top in the shot, it shows the position of the bird a bit better, There's plenty of clean flight shots to be had at bempton I wanted something slightly different.

Ashley:

I do like the cliff in the image, it gives some depth to the shot. I have moved away from straight blue sky flight shots unless there is something special. My only concern is to keep the balance of interest on the bird, and use the cliff as a supporting element.
(hence toning down the color of the light grass a bit)

Cheers

Randy

Hi Ashley, great incoming flight pose, full wingspread and fanned tail, and I like how the line of the wings line up with the piece of cliff in the LRC. Randy was trying to put across that there is nothing wrong about the cliff being in the image - gives the gannet something to land on, but the lighter area stands out too much with the greener parts. Blending in the whole area to a 'greener' cliff will surely work better.

Cheers, I understand whats being said now. I'll take it onboard for similar images.

Great flight pose captured. I really like it.