Salvin's Mollymawk

[Gerald Kelberg]

Browsing through my old files looking for Giant Petrels, I also came across several images of the Salvin's Mollymawk aka Salvin's Albatross, including this portrait / headshot.

The Salvin's is a medium-sized albatross with long broad wings (250 cms), a short stout neck and a short tail, grey head and white underparts. It is a native New Zealand species breeding on remote islands in the Antarctic Ocean, but common in New Zealand waters during the summer. This image was made off the coast of Kaikoura in the South Island as it came in to baiting along with other Albatrosses, Petrels etc.

The image was made with Canon 1DX and EF100-400 Mk II at 400mm. Shutter speed was 1/1600, f/7.1 and ISO 3200. Polarising filter on the lens to cut glare off the water - I seem to recall.

I particularly liked the juxtaposition of the second bird in the background.

Processed in LcR including Enhance, resized, sharpened and exported from PS.

Comments and suggestions warmly welcomed.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gerald ... well worth looking through the archive !!!
Nice head shot of this really attractive looking Albatros , I am bit undecided about the bird in the back because of the overlapping ..... but not too bad . Wish for not being overlapping .
The front does look stunning in terms of fine details and super sharpness .
Overall for me a tad dark , is the plumage on the blue side ? Specially the bird in the back .
But you handled the backlighting quite well .

Nice shot anyway ...

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gerald, nothing wrong in revisiting old files with the new advancements in Software. If the techs are solid as here, the new software will bring out far more than you could all those years ago. With ISO at 3200 folk were still cautious, now you just don't think about ISO, just get the capture.

I too don't mind the interlocking subjects especially as the second one is quite well OOF. and I like the fact the FG subject is slightly turned towards camera. DOF looks spot on, but at actual size you could run a little more sharpening just to help all that lovely detail in the bill. I might also be temped to do some Burn & Dodge on the face. I might suggest you use the masks in Lr just to create a bit more separation between the subjects & the BKG.

TFS
Steve

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Andreas and Steve,

Thanks to both for your helpful comments and suggestions. I'll have a look at it again with these thoughts in mind!

Gerald

[Daniel Cadieux]

The details on those fine feathers look great! I love the other bird too, I only wish you had zoomed out to get its full head in - that would also have given more "body" to the main bird too, especially lower left. Otherwise good stuff. Glad you revisited the files and shared with us!

[William Dickson]

It works for me Gerald. Great detail and I like the 'mood' of the image. I agree with Dan regarding zooming out, then, cropping to suit the subjects.

Will

[Gerald Kelberg]

Thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions.

While I can agree in principle, when you are hanging over the back of a boat in a moving swell, sometimes the finer points go to ****!

Cheers, Gerald