SW FLA IPT Ends with a Great Morning

[Arthur Morris]

Every year just before the Southwest Florida IPT, I hear the following: "There are no birds at Little Estero Lagoon." And every year, we have our very best days there. Yesterdary morning, the last of this year's IPT, we enjoyed one of those calm blue sky, still blue water days that sticks in your memory forever.

I photographed this White Pelican while lying on the wet mud with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/4000 sec. at f/7.1. (Should have been +2/3 but I was too excited.)

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps: I went with the BreezeBrowser conversion here as the ACR conversion was too contrasty.

[Allen Sparks]

Hello Arthur,
I am glad you all had a good outing. I love the eye level detail of this shot, the tones, and the bird's action in the water. One thing this shot can teach me is that good shots can be had even if the whole bird is not in the frame. I may have driven myself crazy trying to catch the whole bird when a great image can be had by focusing more on the critical pieces of interest when framing the shot.

TFS,

Allen

[Ofer Levy]

Beautiful light, excellent exposure control and low angle.

[Chris Martinez]

Wow! This is so clean and simple. I like the turbulent water around the bill of the Pelican and stillness of the surrounding water.
I love the flow of the bird from left to right of frame.

[Thomas Herou]

Superb!
The angle and the exposure is spot-on.
The grey area at the top gives you a feel of depth in the picture.

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

You "went with the BreezeBrowser conversion here as the ACR conversion was too contrasty." Two questions: Do you usually try multiple raw converters and pick the one you like best? and do you find this makes a difference that can't be replicated with the contrast and other settings after initial import?

[Sid Garige]

Excellent image Artie. Great shooting angle and exceptional details.

[Doug Brown]

Beautifully rendered whites, excellent detail, and a low shooting angle work together to create a very nice image Artie!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, you know I love this shooting angle. Loved the eye contact here...Pelican is so well placed in the frame...something I struggle with a lot with these poses and angle.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Really loved the expo here guru.. nicely done..

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for your kind comments. I like this one too. :)

You "went with the BreezeBrowser conversion here as the ACR conversion was too contrasty." Two questions: Do you usually try multiple raw converters and pick the one you like best? and do you find this makes a difference that can't be replicated with the contrast and other settings after initial import?

I only rarely go to the Canon SDK in BrBr. It is likely that I could have wound up happy with an ACR conversion but it is cleaner and faster simply hit Control K in BrBr and convert.

[Jim Fenton]

Love the angle, the soft water, light, sharpness and all of that good stuff.

Looks like it could use just a hint of CW rotation.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Jim. I took a few stabs at leveling this one. There was nothing really solid to work with...

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice low angle and exposure, a tighter crop with just the head sans the horizon line will work nicely too.

[DanWalters]

Great low angle. Like the beak in the water.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Arash (and Dan too :)), The original was cropped from the rear (and of course from above and below). I had three killer frames of the image that I would have cropped as you suggested but I must have accidentally hit the lock exposure button as the whites were beyond toasted..... Score one for manual (though it is possible to accidentally turn a dial there....)

See above