Brown Pelican...

[David Israel]

While I realize that this Brown Pelican will be nothing special to those who live in areas where these birds are seen all of the time, I only see them when I travel to such places.

I spent several days in April just shooting these guys fishing; which was such a thrill to watch.

This guy was just getting ready to dive (sort of putting on the breaks in mid air, to turn and dive straight down).

7D with 100-400 @ 400mm
ISO 320
1/2000 SS
f/6.3

Can't remember what time of the day this was.

Thanks for looking and for your comments.


Dave

[Alfred Forns]

Hi David They might be common in my area but I enjoy shooting them a lot !!! Love the hanging in the air pose, well exposed and sharp About all I could hope for is the far wing straight up so it could be lit by the sun !!! ... might get some comment on the head angle but feel the bird is looking at something and its fine with me !!!

[David Israel]

Hi David They might be common in my area but I enjoy shooting them a lot !!! Love the hanging in the air pose, well exposed and sharp About all I could hope for is the far wing straight up so it could be lit by the sun !!! ... might get some comment on the head angle but feel the bird is looking at something and its fine with me !!!

Thank you for the kind words, Alfred. Sure wish that my wife and I lived to closer to your neck of the woods, as I have found Florida to be a wonderful place for shooting birds.

[Mark Young]

Lovely image David. I like the pose here, as Alfred pointed out it looks like the bird is just hanging in the air.
Personally I don't mind the bird looking slightly away. It's a huge bill and the angle means you aren't getting good eye contact, but if it's head was pointing this way then you may have had the near wing down and the far wing up.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Welcome Dave. Its a good composition, and although I am not a head angle purist, a better one might have helped here. The exposure is good, and you did well with I assume to be high contrast light(no clouds, etc).
The shutter speed and aperture seem good, although I would have upped the ISO for more DOF. With large birds usually F9 or so works best, though 6.3 seemed to work alright here, which has me wondering how much of a crop there was? If the subject was further away F6.3 would work fine, but there will also be a loss of detail simply due to the distance. I think thats what I'm seeing; less detail than a less cropped image would provide. Also was the image a bit underexposed originally and was noise reduction used? There are parts of the wings that seem too smooth. regards~Bill

[David Israel]

Mark - Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I do appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment.

William - Thank you Sir, for the warm welcome. I posted this image from a few that I happened to have on my laptop at work (as my internet is down at home), but I will check the original to see how much of a crop this was. It is likely that I used Noiseware Pro on this image. Thank you very much for the DOF info. I will definitely bear that in mind the next time I'm shooting larger birds. Such tips are always greatly appreciated. :)


Dave

[Dave Mills]

Hi David, good advise above. Not much to add but all in all the image is handled well...

[David Israel]

Hi David, good advise above. Not much to add but all in all the image is handled well...

Thank you, Dave.