Image made in April 2008 at Muriwai, a breeding colony northwest of Auckland. This was one of the few birds left toward the end of the breeding season coming in to land against a backdrop of breaking waves. I like the symmetry and pose of the wings with the fanned tail and spread feet preparing to land. I would prefer some eye contact but the bird is looking down to land and the vantage point is restricted to a platform on the cliff which is above the birds.
Nikon D300
Nikon 200-40 @ 200mm
ISO400 1/4000 f4
comments and advice welcome as always
At first glance it I thought it was carrying a stick...but of course they can't do that with their palmed feet :-). Nice overall pose - I like the fanned tail, and the crashing wave is superb! I too wish for more eye contact.
I like the symmetry and the placement of the bird in the center of the frame. The BG is dynamic. Eye contact is always a good thing, but this image works in its own way.
A neat eye contact would be great but I think that with such a great BG, simetry and sharpness this image doesn´t needs eye contact. I am not sure but it seems that the image has a blue/cyan cast (I am at the office now and my monitor is not calibrated) a touch of additional contrast, mostly on the BG, and saturation increase would also produce anicer result. Well done!
I love this powerful composition. I also see a slight blue cast on my monitor. You could try to put a grad filter in photoshop, running from the bottom of the picture to the feet of the bird. It could add some drama to this beautiful scene.
Thanks for the comments and advice guys. The blue cast had escaped me in preserving the colour in the water but by correcting the bird and leaving the water I think it looks better. Thanks for the suggestion re the grad, Rene. I have tried it in this version but chosen to burn the lower portion of the image instead of using a grad as I had already applied a burn to the corners and felt it blended in better
Australasian Gannet
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