Brown Pelican

[Mark Schmitt]

This is about colour. Brown pelicans, in breeding plumage, are striking birds. This one was sitting on a chain-link fence in full sun. I would have liked the head turned just a bit more for eye contact.

Location: Bolsa Chica Reserve; Huntington Beach, CA
Conditions: mid morning; bright sun.

EXIF: Canon 30D, EF 500 IS L @ f 4.0, 1.4 T/C, effecitive focal length 700mm
Apeture priority mode; pattern metering; ISO 200; white balance custom 5400 K
Exposure 1/1600 @ f 5.6, monopod

Work flow: Adobe Lightroom: process RAW; CS2 final post process

[Fabs Forns]

You are right about the colors, we were in LaJolla this past January and it was spectacular. You needed to be a little more to your left to get a better head and body angle, or wait for a slight head turn.

Great BG and the water droplet a bonus :)

Keep them coming.

[Maxis Gamez]

I like the colors and composition. The BG is also very nice. I wish for more eye contact.

[Linda Robbins]

Beautiful breeding colors on this bird. As you mentioned, the head angle could be better. The bg is pretty too.

[Robert O'Toole]

Good cropping Mark, I never would have known about the fence :-)

HA, BG, and colors already mentioned.

Do you set the WB to custom in camera? Did you use a white or gray target? I use the manual K settings all the time. If you did this in camera you are one of the only people I have met in bird photography that actually does it.

Robert

[Ramon M. Casares]

I like but as everybody else I wish for a better Eye contact, other than that, I like the light, colors and detail! Congrats.

[Mark Schmitt]

Good cropping Mark, I never would have known about the fence :-)

HA, BG, and colors already mentioned.

Do you set the WB to custom in camera? Did you use a white or gray target? I use the manual K settings all the time. If you did this in camera you are one of the only people I have met in bird photography that actually does it.

Robert

Thanks for the comments: I do set the custom white balance in camera. Depending on the situation, I will take a picture of an 18% gray card or my hand in the ambient light and store in camera. I will then use this to set the white balance. At other times I will dial in (Kelvin settings) the white balance based on the lighting conditions, again in camera.

Thanks again. ;)