A widespread circumpolar species (Daption capense) with large breeding colonies in the south Atlantic and Antarctic coast. D. c. australe breeds on the NZ sub-Antarctic islands with the main colony at the Snares Is group where this shot was taken on 1 January 2014. Cape Petrel are well-known for patiently following ships for long distances in the hope of picking up food scraps. Critical feedback welcome. Thanks for looking.
Canon 5DIII + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 2x III extender, hand-held.
Av priority, f/8, 1/2500 sec, ISO 800, EC -1/3 EV.
Processed in DPP: crop, adjust brightness (-0.5), WB, shad/h'lights, USM, RAW-TIFF. PS Elements: adjust shad/h'lights, downsize TIFF-output jpeg, USM.
Wow. Perfect flight position and I love what you were going for here . The bird against this blue is stunning and the wing span matches the large rock. The one thing I just tried which I feel improved the image a tad was a slight crop from the bottom and left . I would have rather seen more space on the right of the rock but if this is your frame, I would go a tad tighter on the left and therefore the bottom to compensate. This is a very fine frame!
I agree with Marina's critique. I would also experiment with lightening the catchlight and "eyering"...at least for web presentation. Wonder IQ, love the plumage with nice rich blacks.
A very attractive image, with a nice banking pose. The rocks make for an excellent backdrop. I would also like just little more of a catch light, but a wonderful capture.
Warm thanks to all who gave feedback on this image. I have tried to take on board your excellent advice in this repost. Marina, the bird is about in the middle of the original frame and the right-hand side is the edge of it. What I have done is retain the same crop proportions (4:3), and taken a bit of canvas away from the left edge and bottom as you suggested. This left the space at the top looking a bit too much so I also took a whisker off the top as well. Daniel, thanks for your suggestion regarding eye work. I have noticed you pay a lot of attention to this aspect in your work and I have tried to do the same here but with less effect than you I fear. The iris is dark brown and I have lightened it and applied a little saturation so that it stands out more and I also brightened the highlight. The slightly tighter crop in this repost makes the eye a little bigger and all looks good until I do the downsize at which point I lose the colour contrast of the iris. Maybe I have not been aggressive enough - perhaps I should have exaggerated it so that after the downsize it was still clearly visible. I guess this is what you meant when suggesting special eye treatment for web posting. I am learning a lot here.