Brown Pelican in Peach Heaven

[Arthur Morris]

• Arthur Morris
• Image Copyright Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
• Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows

I created this image this morning with my favorite new combo, the hand held 70-200 f/2.8L IS II lens, the 2X II TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. Flash at zero. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops: 1/60 sec. at f/6.3 in Tv Mode (to control a minimum shutter speed).

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps: See more on the new gear here and here.

 

[James Salywoda]

Gorgeous peach bg and a nice dreamy feel to this really creatively done Artie.....

 

[Mital Patel]

bird at its best. superb image artie. creativity at its best cheers

 

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Wonderful soft colors in the BG and lovely pose. Overall very special indeed. It reminds me of an image I saw of Andy Rouse's a few years back. Probably because that is the first I've ever seen with an "obscuring" OOF foreground element. It works wonderfully Artie.

 

[Gavin Spooner]

bird at its best. superb image artie. creativity at its best cheers

+1

Beautiful muted background color and transition from foreground to background and then the striking colors of the bird all work together really well.

cheers
gavin

 

[Sidharth Kodikal]

I can only echo the comments above. Superbly done Artie!
Your new combo is yielding stellar results.
I love this image.

 

[Jeff Dyck]

I am going against the grain here Artie - I am not in love with this shot. The beautiful peach background and the parts of the pelican I can see look just fantastic -but- I find that out of focus foreground just too distracting. When I look at the photo my eyes are being drawn away from the bird to the fuzzy fringe of the o-o-f foreground. Perhaps if the point of view were moved up a bit so that the birds bill was completely visible and the out-of-focus softness started midway down the breast it wouldn't bother me as much. Just my $0.02.

 

[Harshad Barve]

This is terrific , gotta love this
TFS

 

[Loukie Viljoen]

OOF forground

I have to go with Jeff, sorry Artie

 

[Sid Garige]

Artie,

I got to agree with Jeff too on the OOF foreground. IMO that pink background is great. Composition, exposure, flash every thing is working great other than OOF foreground.

-Sid

 

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Beautiful dreamy feel,composition,bg,eye contact!!!

 

[Ben_Sadd]

In agreement with Sid, Loukie and Jeff here. I love everything above the oof foreground. Perhaps a thin darker frame would suit the image as it doesn't help that it is hard to tell where the oof foreground ends and the forum background starts. Although I think I remember you saying that you hate frames

 

[Stu Bowie]

I like this, and I know you have purposely postioned yourself to create the OOF FG. Just love the pastel colours, and pose, and would be interested to know what the BG was. The more I look at this, the more impressive I find this. Congrats Sir.

 

[Troy Lim]

Artie, what was in the foreground? I wonder if the flash actually have gotten the FG OOF object brighter?

 

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, BG and head angle are superb here. Although I am liking the FG blur, I feel a tad crop from bottom might work better.

 

[Elinor Osborn]

Absolutely beautiful. I like the oof foregrnd filling the lower 1/3, balancing the 2/3 of peach. To me, it's the perfect balance. My eye goes from the white oof area up the bird's bill to its eye. The bird emerging from a large part of the image (lower 1/3) makes it definitely ethereal. Very creative.

 

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for your thoughtful comments. Yes Troy the flash did whiten the foreground. I have one that I kept where the flash did not fire and the FG is a dull grey. And I realize that light below breaks all of the rules but I am with Elinor here. I absolutely love this one as is Ethereal and surreal are nice words. I am not sure why it works for me....

If I have time to come up for air--getting ready to head to Bosque, just finishing the 7D User's Guide Update, and working and several other projects with Denise--I will optimize the one with the gray foreground.

BTW, the foreground is a rock

 

[Arthur Morris]

KD. Thanks. A small crop from the bottom would not kill me

 

[Kiran Poonacha]

Birds as Art by Artie.. cool stuff guru..

 

[Tim Munsey]

Love the pastels and the bird, but I don't understand the foreground, so leaves me confused.

Tim