light-mantled sooty albatross

[greg cowle]

Even though its head looks like it was drawn by a cartoonist, I think this is a very beautiful bird, characterized by the crescent behind the eye and the light blue line on the lower mandible. Like many albatross the feathers can look very smooth in flight, they are optimized for dynamic soaring, I like this frame because it has some ruffled feathers. From a cliff on Enderby Island, NZ.
Canon 1DXII and 400/2.8II, handheld.
1/3200, f7.1, ISO1600.
Greg

[John Mack]

Nice flight pose. This crop works for me.

[gail bisson]

This is nice.
Comp is perfect, great subject matter and nice top-side view.
The blacks in the face are blocked and I think you can get more detail in the blacks with more PP.
Another housekeeping issue is the sharpening halo visible along the leading edge of the wings and head.
With a bit of tender loving processing this image could shine! Hope you do a repost!
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

This is a HOT bird. Cool looking albatross there is in my book. Great to see one posted here. Nice view of the wings and love the position of the wings. I would brighten the image a touch. Also wish the head was facing us a bit more.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Interesting post. I would have raised the shadows in the Head a little bit and Added more canvas to the left

Thanks for sharing.

[Colin Driscoll]

Lovely bird and agree that more detail could be extracted to give it a lift.

[Arthur Morris]

I love it as presented but for a bit more detail in the dark face. I would normally not be thrilled with the head turned slightly away from us but I think that that adds to the comical look. The dorsal view is wonderful with any albatross and this one is no exception. Were you traveling by ship and landing at various sites?

with love, artie

[Daniel Cadieux]

Apart from wishing more details on the face, this is a pretty darn appealing image. I love the gray-brown on pale gray. Neat bend to the wings too.

[greg cowle]

Thanks all for the comments, I'll go back in and see what I can do to improve.
To your question Arthur, yes this was the Heritage Expeditions itinerary "Galapagos of the Southern Ocean", very good itinerary including fabulous Macquarie Island, and luckily on my trip we got all but one of the landings, the Southern Ocean can be rough.
Greg

[Arthur Morris]

Many thanks Greg. I have been to the Southern Ocean many times and am going for the Emperors next OCT -- bucket list :) I have been pretty lucky with the weather.

with love, artie