Brown Pelican Tribute

[Bill Dix]

D90; 18-200 VR @ 200mm. ISO 800. f/16 @ 1/800s. -0.7 EV. Large crop (42% of FF as presented.)

Although this was taken on a lava beach in the Galapagos a few weeks ago, I'm posting it in tribute to the untold numbers of beautiful Brown Pelicans that are in the midst of a horrible tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. They managed to make it back from the brink the last time we tried to kill them off with DDT; hopefully they will do so again.

[Dave Leroy]

A lovely tribute.

A very nice composition and well exposed against the dark bg.

[Lance Peters]

HI Bill - lovely colours - good detail and sharp as a tack.
Looks good to me.
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Bill -really like this. I never knew a pelican had so many colors.

TFS,

Rachel

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

Nice image, Bill. I, too, am outraged at what's happening to all those birds in the Gulf!! Thanks for the tribute.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, Very sharp,good pose with excellent detail.
I would recommend a few things..A bit more room on the left, bottom and top.
If this was shot in F8 it probably would have blurred the backround more while keeping the bird sharp...

[Alfred Forns]

Sweet image !!! love the detail and composition !! I'm with Dave on lowering the f stop but can do after the fact blurring bg just a bit Sweet !!!

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for looking and for the helpful comments. In the repost I have evened out the shadows and highlights in the bg, and then applied a Gaussian blur at around 8px radius. I kept the tight crop per the OP. Any further thoughts?

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, I like what you did..took away some minor distractions

[Ann Fiske]

Hi Bill,
Love all of the detail in the bird. Great colors. Either background worked for me.

Nice tribute, too.

Ann