Gannet Fly Over - Bird Rock, Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland
I created this image last month while on a tour of Newfoundland with my oldest daughter Laura. It was my first trip to Cape St. Mary's despite having lived in St. John's many years ago. The fog was thick enough to cut with a knife and we heard, and smelled, the birds during out 1.4 kilometre hike to Bird Rock, long before we ever saw them. It was very impressive to have the colony appear from the fog as we approached the 100 metre cliff edge.
Canon 40D, Sigma 50-500 at 313mm on Induro carbonflex tripod. 1/2500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400
Full Frame. Removed a couple of OOF wingtips alone the edge of the colony behind the inflight bird. I also adjusted exposure and ran some noise reduction in post processing to counteract the effectsof the thick fog.
I would have preferred some eye contact but the bird was searching for a landing spot.
Stephen, I like this a lot. Compositionally very strong. I realise that fog is a part of the story here but a little increase in contrast will give it more pop I feel.
I'm OK with the HA angle here as with the BG colony it is obvious this bird is looking for its landing spot. I would have preferred better separation between main subject and BG ones, but we can't always choose their flight paths! Just an idea here, but perhaps you could experiment in darkening the blacks of the flying bird only...you would retain the fog element for the BG, but give the main character a bit more clarity and a effect of it coming out of the fog?
Gannet Fly Over - Bird Rock, Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland
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