David and Goliath

[Tom Rambaut]

This Pelican was being chased off by a Little Black Cormorant. I was taking shots of the Cormorant by its self ( hence the +2/3 EV) when the Pelican came into the picture so to speak. The Cormorant was having none of it and chased it off. I got a few frames of the action and this was to me the best of them. If I had time to think I would have dropped the EV Comp back down to zero or -1/3 to save the whites.While it captures the action the lack of DOF and the resulting OOF of the pelicans eye worries me. I also used a liner burn on the whitest whites.



1dMK4, 500mm + 1.4ext, 1/1000 @ 5.6, ISO 500, EV +2/3.



Thanks Tom

[Randy Stout]

Tom:

The action/interaction here comes through very clearly. I appreciate your self critique, but the image still works for me. Impact is very important, and this image does it well.

Good job saving the whites.

Cheers

Randy

[adrian dancy]

Unfortunately this is a rear view shot of some interesting behaviour..the potential for impact would have been far greater had the pelican been facing you. I'm sorry but the drama is just a little too detached for this image to work for me.....a good effort in the circumstance which were beyond control.

[Doug Brown]

Nice action captured, and I like your thought process on exposure. Sharpness of the Pelican doesn't bother me in the slightest, but I agree with Adrian that the action isn't enough to compensate for the viewing angle.

[Tom Rambaut]

Thanks for the comments guys - my finger hovered over the delete button with this one. I was not sure if it would work or not with the pelican facing away and it seems to be an issue. Thanks for the honest comments.