Yellow-eyed Penguin (NZ Endemic) in habitat

[Dorian Anderson]

This is the world's rarest penguin; As such, they are heavily protected and access to the few remaining colonies is very restricted. I caught up with this guy/gal as heshe emerged from the sea at Katiki Point north of Dunedin.

I wasn't allowed in the colony or on the beach, so I was forced to shoot down from the surrounding cliffs. I'm happy with this result given the species and the shooting restrictions. Yeah, the frame is busy and the lighting was awful, but I was happy to get sharp focus from eyes to feet.

The bird is hella fat since he's about to molt. He'll stay on shore for several weeks without feeding while he changes clothes.

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II on EOS 1DX Mark II
1/1250 at f/7.1, ISO 800
Processed in LR CC. Removed a few distracting bright spots behind him.

[dankearl]

Incredible bird......The best feet ever...
I am totally enjoying your Bird/Travel tour.
This is awesome.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific shot of this rarity, under the difficult circumstances. I saw one, and only one, of these guys on a trip to the same location many years ago, before I started traveling with a big lens. Wish I had an image of him. As an alternate comp, a bit taken off the right might take the bird out of dead center since he is looking left.

[Arthur Morris]

Love this species and hope to see it one day. The image, however, is not up to your usual high standards either artistically ("in habitat") or technically -- the breast looks funky and the whole bird looks washed out. I am glad that you saw and photographed them. And thanks for the heads-up as to the difficulty,.

with love, artie

[Isaac Grant]

Great bird, nice pose as well. The light really did not help you here but considering the circumstances i am not sure you could have done better.

[Steve Kaluski]

the whole bird looks washed out.

That was my first impression Artie.

Hi Dorian, like the different species here and can sympathise about restricted POV, you did well to get the subject in the open without any distracting elements.

Having the flippers out is nice, but overall the image has a warm, yellow cast to it, there are no neutrals so to speak of? At ISO800 and if this is FF then I would expect greater detail, as the head appears to have a slight grain to it as if it had been lifted (lightened), just an observation. By dropping the Exposure a fraction (ie -0.20 amount personal tastes) and tweaking the WB and or Colour balance (within PS) to reduce the yellow and getting some more Tonal Contrast (phrase not application) back into the overall capture, you will get greater colour separation and more 'standout' between all of the elements within frame.

I hope the RP may illustrate my point Dorian, going cooler/warmer in the overall colours is subjective and ultimately they can only be judge by you, as you were there, plus there is a limit working with 256 colours.

TFS
Steve

[John Mack]

Always like seeing these pengiuns. Pretty neat looking birds. Like the overall environement. The pose on the bird is nice.

[greg cowle]

Although I agree not your best image (you set high standards), I always like to see people's sightings of rarities. Good open pose, he really is a fatty. I've seen a few of these, I think your original post is much closer to the colors of the bird than the RP. They have bright light pink feet, and the dark feathers are less black than other penguins. So they naturally look 'washed out' compared to most of the other penguins.