The right place at the right time!

[Roger Clark]

A pelican dives off the coast of Florida, passing right in front of the sun.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 70-200 mm f/4 L IS lens + 1.4x teleconverter at 280 mm, f/8, ISO 400 1/8000 second, aperture priority. Crop to 7 megapixels. The pelican was diving at a rate of 36 degrees per second, or the equivalent of 31,000 pixels per second. Timing difference of more than two milliseconds would have meant that the bird would not have been centered on the sun.

I'm not sure I like the crop. I would like more to the left but a boat was there so I cropped it out.

Roger

[Jack Breakfast]

Remarkable! A most pleasing image indeed. I also enjoy your mathematical information...I'm glad the numbers worked out! I like the crop very much and also the position of the bird's foot!

[Colin Knight]

Thanks for sharing this! Timing is everything. How did you calculate his dive speed?

[Randy Stout]

Roger:

Dare I say, good timing, on this one?

I am assuming you were firing away before he hit this position?

I could see darkening the bird more.

THe crop is ok for me because of his angle in frame.

Hope you were taking good care of your retinas!

Cheers

Randy

[Roger Clark]

Thank you Jack, Colin, and Randy,

I was framing at 10 frames per second, following the diving birds. I computed the angular rate by measuring the distance the bird moved from this and the previous frame. I will post the previous frame tonight. The sun is 1/2 degree in diameter, which gave me the scale. The bird moved 3.6 degrees in 1/10 second.

Randy, you do raise a good point as this could have been dangerous. The sun was pretty bright but did not hurt my eyes to look at as the sun was only 1 degree above the horizon, and my exposure was less than about 1/4 second. If the sun was a little higher and the atmosphere clearer, this would have been dangerous and I would not have tried it. I started imaging the pelicans about a half hour earlier, and any time they got close to the sun, I broke off. This sequence was the first set that I allowed the sun to enter the frame as the sun had finally gotten low enough.

Roger

[Arthur Morris]

Perfect timing but the bright sun caused the flare which detracts greatly for me.... What's the phase angle here, 180 degrees :)?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Roger, I like the composition. I dont think it needs more room. loved the pose. Excellent exposure on the sky.

[D. Robert Franz]

Great timing Roger.. Dream shot!

[Frank Schauf]

Perfect in every way, Roger.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely moment here Roger! Love the framing and presentation!

[Roger Clark]

Perfect timing but the bright sun caused the flare which detracts greatly for me.... What's the phase angle here, 180 degrees :)?

Hi Artie,

Yes, 180 degrees.

I did play around with contrast to reduce the flare and I can completely eliminate it. But then to me the image looked fake like the bird was pasted on. The flare tells the viewer the light is really bright, like the view with my eye, so I left it. Technically, some of the "flare" is real: it is the effects of diffraction.

Roger

[Charles Glatzer]

Roger,

I agree with you leaving the flare as posted, as this more closely emulates what we would see / expect with this type of image.

And, I love the pic.

Chas

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool captured the right moment. I would go a portrait 3X2. Be careful with your eyes!

[Ofer Levy]

I am with Artie on this one!! Having the bird just below the sun instead of the way it is presented would have been much better IMHO.

[Conrad Tan]

Beautiful moment man!

[Roger Clark]

Having the bird just below the sun instead of the way it is presented would have been much better IMHO.

Hi Ofer,
I'm not sure what you mean by lower. If the bird were any lower in the direction it was traveling, the head would not be on the sun. Timing to a fraction of a millisecond would certainly be tough! I guess I should have been a foot to the left to center the bird better, which is also tough when the bird is travelling at 36 degrees per second. I'll just have to try again.

Roger

[Roger Clark]

Thanks everyone!

Roger

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Simply brilliant , just the way it is . All the mathematics just add to the awe !!!