Cape Petral Pintado

[Jay Gould]

Hello and hope all of you have had a good New Year and are enjoying your 1D4s. I returned yesterday from a 26-day cruise to the Falklands, South Georgias, Orkneys, and the Antarctic Pen. It was a fantastic experience - loved it! Because for whatever reason the USA did not receive their 1D4s before Xmas, there were many sad Canon shooters that had been looking forward to using the 1D4 on this tirp. I will not get mine until May when I return to Australia.

Anyway, good to be back in cyberspace, here is on of many Cape Petral Pintados that I shot during our days at sea. We spend many hours watching the acrobatics of these fast little (about 1' long) birds following our wake.

Camera: 7D
Capture date/time: 11 Jan 10; 120pm
Light condition: mixed
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 600mm
Extender: 2.0X
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no;
ISO: 400
Exp Prog: Tv
Speed: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: f/7.1
Exp Comp: 0
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: 50%
Processed in LR 3 (beta) and then CS4 - plus Topaz Suite and Pixel Genius Sharpening.
All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice to see you back in cyberspace - looks like you are having a fantastic time abroad!! It sure it must not be easy photographing these pelagic birds. This one gave you a good banking pose with a nice view of the back's plumage. Is this one mid-molt, or a youger fellow attaining adult plumage?

The image seems like it may be a heavy crop, with little fine detail and a fair amount of noise for ISO 400.

[Jay Gould]

Hi Dan, thanks for the comments. Definitely not in molt; do not know if younger or older. These were small, fast, and not close to the ship. As indicated, iit is a 50% crop and of course the crop affects the details.

I am choosing to do posts like this - 50% crop - to share the bird rather than forgo sharing what I have seen.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Jay, Thanks for posting this, very nice specie, I like the arctic ambiance BG creates and also the banking position. I don't think there is noise in this photo, the harsh looking bokeh in the BG is from the 2X TC, you can select the entire BG and run a few runs of NR or mild Gaussian blur to take away the harshness. The angle of light was a bit non-ideal so eye is in shadow, I would try lifting the exposure in dark areas and sharpening a bit more. BTW, 50% crop is not much at all for 7D if the original shot is sharp and well exposed, I have created 30% crops (70% thrown away) which everybody here liked and could never guess ;)

Well done and TFS :)