An Australian Pelican photographed in the late afternoon on the New South Wales south coast. The image has a lot of sky above the bird so I thought a pano crop might work.
Great idea and composition. I think it needs a tad CCW rotation and would prefer a different wing position, either fully up or down but this one is maybe better for a pano crop.
Simon,
Welcome to BPN! I agree with Axel and Fabs that this was a great idea to pursue a panoramic fomat for this image. Axel is also right that the wing position could be better. Artie Morris really helped me to appreciate wing position and to avoid "flying pancakes." Keep at it! :)
To get a better look at overall picture I went to thumbnail in Panoramas forum.
Nice placement of bird in the shot and I like the wing display.
Makes me think of a plane doing a wheels up landing !!!
Ian McHenry
Nice idea and I do similar with pelicans as I like the look with them skimming the water. I like how you have him in sky and the wave acting as a compositional anchor along the bottom.
I would want a wing flap; preferrably up but down as well as long as the down did not touch the water.
Umm, I have noticed that pelicans near water very seldom flap their wings. They tend to ride small air currents coming off the water. Its one the things I find fascinating about them
I agree, they don't flap as much when skimming that water and I too like to watch them do it. For the image, I feel more drama is added and with luck you will get the flap. I did mention in the critique that I make similar images and do like them and this would certainly be one I like. Wishing for the wing flap is the icing on the cake.:)
If I I gave Simon the impression that this image was somehow not good lacking a wingflap, that was not my intention.:confused:
Thank you all for your comments, I'm still very much an apprentice with photography and I find your considered views most valuable - so Robert - no worries mate! :)
The pelican image was opportunistic - I had been photographing terns sitting on rocks in one shot mode when this bloke went flapping by. I only managed to squeeze off two shots. The first one got no stars (but I've attached it here to show what upwing might have looked like). With the second image I was quite taken with the wedge of white surf. So that's when I got the idea for the pano crop to keep all the surf.
Looking at it now, if I had have got an upwing beat then I suspect I wouldn't have considered pano, and, I dunno, somehow the skimming appearance fits the image better than a full downbeat would have.
I think the middle wing position works better for a pano image. I think cropping a little off the top would make the pano effect even stronger. Nice image.
Pelican over the South Pacific
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