"I'm baackkk!"

[Keith Carver]

Bonaventure Island, Quebec, 7-16-10

This Northern Gannet was bringing seaweed back to help cement the nest. Since gannets are highly sociable and colonial I thought this image of an individual incoming to the colony might be appropriate for Avian. But not sure, since there isn't that much detail of the incoming bird. DOF isn't as much as I would have liked, but I opted for best shutter speed since this was HH and I wanted to freeze the wings.

Techs: 7D, 280 mm, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec

Post: NR on BG, smart-sharpened the incoming gannet

C&C appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

Keith:

I like the concept of showing the colony and returning bird. Wish the colony was paying more attention to him/her. I know, no big deal to them:D
I do like the landing birds wing position and feet out, plus prize.

Cropping groups of birds like this is always a challenge. I might be tempted to crop in from the left to eliminate the bill just poking in. Bottom is tougher.

A near miss I would say.

Cheers

Randy

[Keith Carver]

Keith:

I like the concept of showing the colony and returning bird. Wish the colony was paying more attention to him/her. I know, no big deal to them:D

Randy, here's another in the sequence: this incoming gannet has nothing to contribute, but seems to get a lot more attention from the colony. Go figure.

[wendell westfall]

Keith, though the "story" isn't there, I like everything about the second post better -- wingspread on incoming, the group looking up, the green grass sloping off to the right.

[Mark Young]

Hi Keith, I like the composition of the second image as it shows a bit more interaction between the flying bird and those on the ground. Also the pose of the bird in the air looks great in the second one.

[Dan Busby]

I like both Kieth, but IMO there is something catchy about the first. This bird, bringing in its prize and nobody cares :confused:. That works for me!

[Bill Dix]

I like the idea of showing the colony, and also like the poses in both images. Maybe partial to the first, but were it mine I think I might experiment with a bit of CCW rotation and small crop off the bottom, possibly trying to sharpen up the colony birds a little. Just a thought.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Keith, second works more for me. Liked that shooting angle more....but both are splendid shots. congrats. Must have been quite an experience...shooting from so close. I think you could have gone one stop higher on the ISO and smaller aperture to get more DOF. 7D is supposed to be good and with so much white, with proper exposure, noise would not have been a big issue, I guess. But hindsight is always 20-20.

[Randy Stout]

Keith:

I like the second one better, more sense of interaction, the closeness of the birds works better too. I suppose you could do a merge,landing bird from first, colony from second.

Cheers

Randy