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.
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...
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?