Short Story - Spent a couple of days last week at Australia's only mainland Gannet colony - the only place in australia were they breed on the mainland and as luck would have it only 2 hours from were I live.
The colony is high on a cliff top over looking the ocean - awesome experience even if you weren't taking Photographs - so many birds and so much action taking place. Mum's feeding Chicks and natures natural selection process at work (thats for another post)
Its very very windy - there are great big stinging flies that kinda make life a little uncomfortable. The sun unfortunately is not very co-operative (wrong angles) so overcast days would be best. Great spot for practising BIF - maybe 100 birds circling and landing all the time.
Must have been getting near dinner time for this little guy....
I like it Mr. Peters,
I like the open bill and the hungry expression on the poor tod's face. You have good details in the whites, and a good head angle...the back light is a bit on the harsh side possibly throwing your matrix meter reading off. I would suggest on lightening the area around the eye ever so slightly...now I don't know if this is the chick's natural color...at the bottom; slice off 1/4 and see if it presents best to you...I like the capture very much...:cool:
Can't suggest much based on shooting info. Nice low angle and still on tripod, up the ISO and raise shutter speed may be a good idea. Open the lense up more if possible and again raise ss..
It is such a tender looking subject Lance in very difficult conditions. Not sure about the time of day the shot was taken in, perhaps very, very early morning or late, late afternoon to get the soft light at a different angle, again don't know if that would help.
I would like to see more of the face/eye some how, perhaps ps or fill flash?
The other possible option for a very nice photo, is to go completely radical and make bg black and do a silhouette, or .....
I do like the idea of a bit of crop from bottom and some nr.
Looks like a great but tough spot. Looking forward to some action.
Dave
Dave = it was very late in the afternoon - fill flash or a overcast day would be the only options, as you are limited to the area's you can shoot from - this trip was really a bit of a exploration trip. I will be making a few more trips to the site no doubt (Dec to march is nesting season)
It is a challenging spot - but nothing else like it in australia, and gotta love a challenge :)
Big Mouth
