Brown Pelican

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Taken yesterday at Little Estero Lagoon, Ft. Myers, FL. As I was waiting for the low tide, this Brown Pelican decided to come in and wait with me. The wind and light were coming from opposite directions, so I wasn't hoping for any in flight shots. As the day went on, I was able to add some new species to my life list, including:
- American Oystercatcher
- Marbled Godwit
- Least Sandpiper
- Red Knot
Some of those to come!

Shooting info:
Nikon D800 | 500 f/4 VR | 1.4x
700 mm | 1/1000" | f/8 | ISO 400
Manual exposure

Processing:
- Processed entirely in LR4. I usually go into CS6 after some RAW tweaks, but I wanted to try out editing in just LR.
- Slight negative exp comp, selective burn on whites, color desaturation on greens (they were too saturated after the exp comp), selective clarity/sharpening on face and feathers.
- Slight crop and exported to 800 on the long side.

Comments, critiques, and suggestions are all welcomed and appreciated!

[gail bisson]

Miguel,
I like the image a lot. Nice body position and HA.
My only tweak would be to take some off the top and add that same amount to the bottom of the frame.
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Hi Gail, thanks for the comments. Attached is a version with your suggestions. :)

[Randy Stout]

Miguel:

Sharp, with good headangle. The crop change as suggested by Gail, gives the illusion of an even lower shooting angle, which I find works even better.

LR has come a long way. For many of my social photographs, I never go to PS anymore. Still finish up the bird images usually, partly out of habit.

Cheers

Randy

[Satish Ranadive]

Miguel:
Magnificent image.
Love the pose,head angle,colors,sharpness,low angle and nice 3D effect by blues and green in BG.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Miguel, love the perspective, and I find pelicans such wonderful subjects - not that I have many images of them. Good detail, exposure and sharpness on the pelican, and I like the two tone BG, water and foliage. Your repost works well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm gonna go against the repost flow and say that I much prefer the original composition. Great low angle, colours, techs. Way to go on going vertical.

Congrats on the new species for you, it's pretty exciting to photograph new subjects :-)

[gail bisson]

A bit late in responding.
I really like the repost.
Gail