White Pelican Takeoff

[John Rowell]

This early morning takeoff at Ft. DeSoto went right through a group of feeding mergansers. They scattered in every direction, some diving under, some taking off and a few just sat there and watched. Cloned out a couple of the mergansers, background NR and some Nik Detail Extractor on the dark wings and hot portions of the white.

I struggled with the crop on this, thinking the pelican is too centered. I didn't want to lose all the splash behind him and didn't have any more room up front unless I add some canvas.

Tripod mounted D4, 600 mm + TC1.4, 1/3200 sec., f8, iso 1600

All comments welcome, thanks for looking.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Exciting frame...how neat! I love the little merganser, gives a nice size comparison - those pelicans are huge. Nice light and I like the habitat in the BG. I guess there was another pelican in front of this one that left a splash behind the wing (I wish that splash was not there). Left to right the crop is fine, I just feel you could take a bit more off the bottom.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi John, great take off pose with the forward wing position. Im fine with the placement, and agree, a little off the bottom wont harm.

During my december holidays, I was fortunate to photograph these guys and came away with hundreds of different shots.