Visual flight rules

It dawned on me that I had not posted any images from my last trip to Bonaventure Island with Chris Dodds. Chris, Artie and others have posted some beautiful gannet images lately and they are a hard act to follow, but here goes.....

I had trouble with this image because of the top lighting but kept at it because I liked the eye contact of this bird coming in to land in the colony. I can't remember why I had my flash off for this one. I had to resort to Ps S/H to fill the underside of the bird and performed some selective noise reduction using a soft blur tool. Still not 100% happy with it but I thought I'd throw it out for comment!

Canon EOS 40D, 70-200mm f4 IS, 1.4 tc = 280mm
capture date: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:14:28 AM
exposure program: Manual
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/1600
aperture: f8.0
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

John, the image does have a little bit of a "soft" feel to it but it still has plenty of bang for the buck! I especially love the way the wings turned out - they have a very ethereal feel to them. It's a lovely image and I think you did a great job of enhancing it for all it was worth in pp.

Cool perspective, the crop works really well. I would selectively sharpen head and bill some more.

Thanks for the comments so far. I think I was too aggressive with the crop but I'll stick to it and try to sharpen up the head.

I like it John! Sharpness looks pretty good on my monitor. I'd try to tone down the whites just above the head a little. I like the tight crop too.

Nice work John! I especially like the crop! very balanced. I agree with the above suggestions for improvement. I might play with lightening the eyes up a bit to add impact. I've noticed that on the other Gannet shots posted recently that the eyes have a glow that your bird lacks.

Dan Brown

Hi John,

Thank you for your great Gannet presentation during my recent workshops. Everyone enjoyed the show and we all learned a lot. It was great to see you again, and to meet your lovely wife.

Very best,

Chris

Thanks Chris. If you'll have me, would love to do a couple more in 2009! I'll be there as well for the 5-year North American gannet census.

Beautiful capture John. I like the eye contact very much. Personally I would have gone for a more wider aspect ratio crop like a 4:6 and see a little more of the wings, but this looks good as is.