A group of half a dozen white pelicans were feeding in a shallow pond at Palo Alto Baylands just before sunset. As the sun went down, they began to fly away.
hi Bill - Wings fully up or fully down are the most flattering positions - The OOF foreground wing is a little distracting in the position it is in (cutting the body in half).
Light looks good and has a nice 3D feel to it.
Would have upped the ISO some so that you had a higher shutter speed - might have helped freezing the wing action.
Good show :)
Bill, I agree with Lance that the front wing is a bit distracting. I like the HA and the clear, sharp eye and I am glad to see you got the bird above the horizon line...that's always important. Beautiful light...just needed a bit more ss to freeze those wings a bit more.
I agree with previous suggestions and would add perhaps an improvement would be that you could try eliminating the light colored objects at the base of the hills in the BG and blurring the grasses below the bird or just darkening some of the light spots.
Also this image might be one to experiment with filters, it might look good as a painting with some other effect.
Thanks very much for all the helpful comments. I'll have an opportunity to visit the location again in the next few days, and may be able to improve on this. Anticipating when the birds will fly would be helpful. Thinking back on this, the pelicans seemed to want to feed only while there was sunlight. As the sun went down, and shaded the nearer part of the pond, they moved to stay in the sun, and when it was all gone, they began to fly.
White Pelican at Dusk
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