Emperor Penguin/double overhead wingstretch

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created on Day 2 — October 25, 2018 — of the recently concluded Emperor Penguins of Snow Hill Island expedition via icebreaker. While lying flat on the snow and ice, I used the hand held Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens (at 175mm) with my back-up Nikon D850.ISO 400. Matrix metering plus about 2 stops off the snow: 1/1000 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. Auto 1 WB at 10:13am on a cloudy-bright morning. One AF point down and three to the right of the center AF point/Single/Shutter button AF as originally framed was active at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was just above and to the left of the penguin’s eye. I kept my 80-400 rig on my shoulder via an RS-7 Curve Breathe Strapso that it was instantly accessible when I was working with the tripod-mounted 500 PF.
Focus peaking AF Fine-tune: +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guidehere.

As for the image, don't be shy; all comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

with love, artie

ps: to learn more about the creation of this image see the Background Strategies. And a Killer Emperor Penguin Double-overhead Wingstretch! blog post here.