Fiordland Crested Penguins

[gail bisson]

I took this image on Stewart island, New Zealand last month.
Taken from a boat on a foggy morning.
Canon 1DX and 1.4 X converter
ISO 1600 F 5.6 SS 1/1000
I took a chance with low aperture to get some SS and put the focus point ( when I could as the waves were moving the boat up and down by 2 feet) on the left hand penguins' chin to get good DOF on both faces.
Only an estimated 2000-3000 breeding pairs left in the world and all are in South and Southwestern NZ. Numbers are likely decreasing but only recently have scientists been doing counts.The penguins only come onshore to nest and raise their young and live in remote shoreline areas in caves or under heavy dense bush or under tree roots.This makes it difficult to get accurate numbers .The female has more of a brown eye and the male has a red eye. They are apparently very shy and usually run back into their cave/den when boats approach. I was very lucky and this pair exited the cave and proceeded to preen each other. The captain of the boat said this was the first time he had ever seen these penguins out in the open for such an extended period of time.
PP: This is FF vertically with 25% crop from left.No more room on right. Cloned out a small rock under male's tail that looked like poop, otherwise as is.Did some eye work on male's eye.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[William Dickson]

Great image, along with a very good story. Fab detail on blacks and whites. I like the dark shadow merging with the rock in the BG. Very intimate pose, nice. Well done Gail I reckon you nailed it here.

Will

[Bill Dix]

Congratulations on getting such a unique allopreening shot of this guy and gal. Exposure looks good. In fact everything looks good under the difficult circumstances.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

What a super capture under the conditions, Gail. Just great that you found them grooming one another.

Geoffrey




https://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[Glenn Pure]

Nice to see you back posting after a trip to NZ by the look, Gail. A fine image with lots to like. Normally I wouldn't be keen on the lack of separation between the background and the black on the birds but you have enough here to make it work very well, I think. Pose on the two penguins is excellent and moment captured is perfect. All from a difficult situation with boat rocking. Tone, colour and detail are all up to your excellent standard. Great work.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice interaction Gail, in a perfect would BG could be improved but I take this as is

TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Beautifully processed Gail, that is a gem.
Which lens was it?

[gail bisson]

Sorry I missed your question Jonathan- my 600 mm and 1.4 x were used for this photo,
Gail