Brown Pelican

[Roger Williams]

...........and another Brown Pelican! Found this guy lounging on Jekyll Island, GA over Thanksgiving weekend. The image was made at about 4:30 in the PM with natural light. Might have been better if the bird were facing me, but I really like the "over the shoulder" pose. Some may think the background is busy, but I feel its uniformly busy and the color really blends well with the birds plumage (am I making excuses)?

Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: Tamron 28-300 XR Di at 300mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed: 1/60th
Aperture: f/8
no flash
camera resting on a railing
image cropped slightly top and bottom to remove "stuff"
Image sharpened slightly

Comments appreciated.

[Phil Colla]

I also like the over-the-shoulder view on pelicans, provided the eye contact is there -- and yours has good eye contact. I would suggest applying some sharpening (this one looks soft perhaps after resizing). Perhaps crop out the ropes at the bottom. The color and softness of the light is quite nice.

[Lana Hays]

Phil has done a wonderful assessment of the image. I do love that light and the BG is fine. I also like the over the shoulder look. I think my biggest nit is the softness. I like slightly soft images....especially in beautiful light such as you have....but this is a little too soft and would better with the sharpening.

[Roger Williams]

Thanks for the comments. I did sharpen the image, but prior to resizing. I'll give it another go.

[Roger Williams]

Did a little sharpening work in PS. Here's the result.

[Lana Hays]

Roger
Much better. Until I saw it for myself, I never thought that sharpening before downsizing would make as much of a difference as it did.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Really like the repost Roger and the lighting in this capture is beautiful !! I might just off center the pelican a bit so it is not quite so centered.