Brown Pelican

[Diane Miller]

I managed a quick two-day run to La Jolla to find the breeding pelicans. They do park in a very nice spot.

Canon 5D Mk III, 600mm II. Big Gitzo with Wimberley II. ISO 800, f/9.5, 1/000 sec. About 60% of the original frame. Basic LR5 adjustments only, no further sharpening of the JPEG. (Default sharpening in LR.)

[Frank Schauf]

Nice pose and sharp detail.

[Marina Scarr]

There's something quite peaceful about this image, Diane. The bird is just so relaxed and contented. The light was gorgeous. I would give your bird a tad more sharpening.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Diane, lovely soft light, and you have brought out good all round detail on the Pelican. I actually feel that the sharpening is fine as is. I also like the colour of the water.

Ive have always stated in other posts that I find your Pelicans more colourful than our drab white ones.

[eddyswan]

Great behavioral shot, Diane. I like the concentration of the bird, the blue water adds peaceful sensation.

[David Salem]

Nice capture Diane. I like the preening pose and the light is perfect with the blue BG. A bit more sharpening will make this pop even more. Well done.

[gail bisson]

Lovely light and nice preening pose.
I like your techs.
I wonder if you could get a bit more detail out of the whites on the neck with Detail Extractor in NIK EFEX?
Composition is nice as I find this pose a bit tricky. Do I go for a landscape with more room at the front of the bird so that when he lifts his head there is room for the beak? Or do I put more room on the right to include more of the rock and allow for the direction of the bill? I think this looks really nice,
Gail

[Holger Leyrer]

Very nice pose and wonderful light. I like the colors and details.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the preening pose, details, exposure and BG. Nice image Diane.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, everyone! I actually had to desaturate the water somewhat. Will try sharpening the JPEG (and experiment with sharpening before, as per a recent discussion in Digital Workflow). And will try for more detail in the whites and repost later today -- still playing catchup from being away a few days.

Cropping is always a difficult decision with relatively static poses like this. In some cases these guys were close enough that if I had the camera vertical there wasn't much room on the sides, and if horizontal there were often pieces of other birds to clone out (which I have no problem with doing). The only choice for environmental shots was other OOF pelicans and the occasional seagull. I do have a couple that halfway worked, even did a "focus stack" on a seagull parked near a pelican -- may decide it's worth working up.

[Diane Miller]

Here it is with a little more detail in the whites (Detail Extractor), a slight tweak of colors and the exported JPEG sharpened slightly (Smart Sharpen).

Thanks for all the comments!