Pelican in flight (DUCK!)

[My Hanh Dang]

I made this image in Nov. I was positioned on the banks to watch him fishing when he suddenly exploded out of the water and flew straight at me. I had less than a second to raise the camera and took a couple of frames and then had to duck quickly. I got hit, by a drop of water. :)

Nikon D200 + 300mm f/4, Manual exposure mode, ISO 100, SS 1/1250, tripod = none, flash = none.
From my position, I ended up getting side light. I guess that's not totally a bad thing. Unfortunately, it showed the bird's bad eye in the highlight and the good eye in the shadow. The pelican flew so close to me that there was no way I could not clip the wings so I cropped the vertical dimension halfway to make it into a pano. Comments & critiques welcome.

Hanh

[Ramon M. Casares]

Powerfull shot! Very dramatic! Great eye level anlge, nice light, stunnig shaprness and excelent colors and pose. tight crop works for me nicely. Congratulations!

[Harshad Barve]

This is awesome

Harshad

[Jay Gould]

Hi, great image and quick reflexs! Where were you in SoCal when you made the image?

Had a very pleasant stroll through your website - powerful images!!

Keep 'em coming!!

Cheers, Jay

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the 'collision course' feel and like the crop. I would remove the bigger specular highlights and wish the sun would have been behind you.

[Mital Patel]

Fantastic pose and a great capture at the eye level and a perfect front shot.
Congratulations and Thanks for sharing this.

[Dave Barnes]

Very powerfull image, I like.
Feather detail/paterns are interesting, what a pity that the light was from the side. Have you tried to lighten the face a bit on the shaded side?

[Stu Bowie]

Great head on shot, and well done for capturing this with the little time you had to react. Pano crop works well, and nice and sharp on the head and beak that counts. I agree with Dave to try and recover some of the shadows if possible.

[My Hanh Dang]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments.

Hi, great image and quick reflexs! Where were you in SoCal when you made the image?

Had a very pleasant stroll through your website - powerful images!!

Keep 'em coming!!

Cheers, Jay

Jay, the photo was taken at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Orange County - about 30 miles southeast of downtown LA.

Hanh

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Excellent impact for me and it is different indeed. Well done!