African Penguin (South Africa)

[Dorian Anderson]

This is from the famed Boulder Beach colony outside Cape Town. It's heavily visited by locals and tourists, so the hardest park of shooting here is beating everyone else to the boardwalk and beach.
Fortunately, the guard let me in 30 mins ahead of opening (pays to get there early, right?), and I was able to stake out a private patch of sand near some resting birds before everyone else arrived
(and inevitably scared them off). The sun had just cleared a rocky outcropping behind me when I captured this frame.

I head back to South Africa on Sunday, so I'm hoping to get a few more posts up before I leave!

Canon 100-400mm f/4.4-5.6 IS II on EOS R5
1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 1000
Processed in LR CC. Nothing added or cloned.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dorian ... a lovely frame of these comical penguins !!
Love the warm light and the overall presantation , well handeld exposure and tonal range . Parts of the whites are looking hot and partially blown ... but this is the problem of the red channel under the lighting conditions . Not much you could have done .
Super sharp

Very nice overall

TFS Andreas

[Ian McLachlan]

Lovely frame.Great background. For perfection I reckon the head turn could be slightly less ,as the beak seems to have lost a touch definition.Perhaps you might like lighten it slightly,
then again maybe not much in it.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks good to me, I lik ethe pose and the light, composition also excellent.

[William Dickson]

Very nice Dorian....Great POV and super pose....Beautiful detail on the bird with nice colours throughout the frame..

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Lovely frame.Great background. For perfection I reckon the head turn could be slightly less ,as the beak seems to have lost a touch definition.Perhaps you might like lighten it slightly,
then again maybe not much in it.

Excellent idea about the beak. Made the suggested change and it certainly improves the image. That version will make it only my website in the next few days. Cheers!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love this Dorian! Sweet light, perfect vertical comp, and well processed. The pose and head turn reminds me of a model about to turn around on the catwalk - not that I watch those things anyhow....have fun back in South Africa!