Bad day at the beach

[Bob Pelkey]

It felt extremely uncomfortable at the beach Monday as the wind was strong from the WSW while I was wet and cold. My basebal cap that kept me warmer than I might have been otherwise went in the water as I was distracted by a couple that told me of their daughter somewhere in an artic environment taking photographs.

The same image here of the often seen Royal Tern with enhancements that took me about 30 seconds including a crop, brightening, sharpening, darkening of a highlight on the left wing, and a reduction of the resulting blues can be seen here . . .
http://www.pbase.com/image/120643994

The modifications were made in Photoshop Elements 5.

Venue: San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve, Fort Myers, Florida USA
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
2009/12/28 15:339.0
Image Size: 2357 x 2357
Focal Length: 840mm
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
1/1250 sec - F/10
Exposure Comp.: -0.7 EV
Sensitivity:
White Balance:
ISO 320

[Juan Aragonés]

Sidelight is no the best friend for a good exposure job on a mostly white subject like this tern. Sometimes is not possible to look for a better shooting position with a beter light angle but it is really important to remind about it because a lot of times, when we are in the field, we do not care about our shooting position related to light angle. A few stepd to the right or to the left can do miracles sometimes :)
The low shoting angle is very good and you did a good job capturing the action. Too bad that there is not a good eye contact. Keep them coming

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the complaining pose and open bill. I would give it more room top and bottom, remove the specular highlights on the left side and tone down the whites.

[Bob Pelkey]

Much thanks for the feedback. Once I settle down in an area at BBP, I regret I don't have the opportunity to control where a stray bird lands near me and the light source upon it. I certainly make an effort to have the sun (when it's available) behind me generally. As for the crop, it's my favored one for birds that I place in species specific galleries. I do not like to create portrait crops as I'll be presenting images on the computer and consider it an imposition to the viewer to have to scroll the screen to see the image. I'm giving much less concern for those that have not acquired at least a 19 inch wide screen monitor. My panoramic crops and their dimensions are the only intentional violation of my courtesy in this regard.