Pelican portrait

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM + EF 2x II. Shot at 800 mm, f10, 1/1000. full frame.

This Pelican was perched on top of a tree. Tried my best to show less of foliage. Look forward to your comments.

[Tony Whitehead]

I like the pose and eye contact. Looks a bit tight in the frame. Not sure what's happening top right - looks some patching/cloning marks. Would probably remove the little sprig coming in from the left edge

[Juan Aragonés]

Great sharpness and fantastic eye contact but the composition is too tight for my taste. I absolutey agree with Tony about the marks and the sprig. Too bad that you were using the 2X-TC, I think that in this case a 1,4X-TC would do de job much better. BTW very cool looking species!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Tony & Juan,
I don't do cloning. I hadn't seen the mark earlier. Will have to check what it is in the raw file. Thanks for point it out.

I had got comments regarding BG not clean. So I was trying to isolate some birds and shoot. So I had used 2x. I have also gone close enough and shot even with a 28mm. You may check my previous posting.

This is part of an effort to document a wetland which is going to be taken over for industrial activity.

I would be going back again after a month to document the interaction with young ones. All your comments are appreciated as better photos would be able to shift the public opinion to save the area.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Doug Brown]

I really like the pose and eye contact on this one Sabyasachi. A little more room on the left would really help. I would remove the stuff in the URC and also the 'floating' twig on the left side of the image.

[Juan Aragonés]

I really do not know what are that marks but are a little bit distracting, maybe they are due to an out of focus branch (?)
I saw the image that you posted with the 28mm and I liked a lot (so many good photos here and so little time to comment on all of them!!! :)). If you do not do cloning it is difficult to get a clean sky (considering the conditions of the site that you described). If I had to choose between this image with a clean BG and another one with more room I would go for the second one but it is just a personal taste, of course.

Too bad to hear that another wild place is under the risk of vanishing due to industrial development :( Hope that your images helps to raise public aware about the importance of that kind of natural spaces. Good luck and please keep us informed about the matter
Juan

Tony & Juan,
I don't do cloning. I hadn't seen the mark earlier. Will have to check what it is in the raw file. Thanks for point it out.

I had got comments regarding BG not clean. So I was trying to isolate some birds and shoot. So I had used 2x. I have also gone close enough and shot even with a 28mm. You may check my previous posting.

This is part of an effort to document a wetland which is going to be taken over for industrial activity.

I would be going back again after a month to document the interaction with young ones. All your comments are appreciated as better photos would be able to shift the public opinion to save the area.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi