Brown Pelicans greeting each other

[Arthur Morris]

• Arthur Morris
• Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
• Capture One 12 Macintosh

This image was created on January 15, 2020 at La Jolla, CA. I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 332mm) with the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 3200. Exposure determined by Zebras: 1/500 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. AWB at 8:12am on a cloudy morning. Zone Continuous/tracking (C) AF worked perfectly here.

I’ve seen these spectacular greetings dozens of times. And failed dozens of times; why?

• 1- I did not have enough reach.
• 2- I had a fixed focal length lens in my hands and could not frame the image properly.
• 3- The were numerous extraneous gulls, cormorants, and pelicans either in the way or ruining the backgrounds.
• 4- There were one or more poor head angles.

With the SONY 2-6 and a bit of luck on my side, I was able to overcome the odds against success. And the lightning-fast initial focusing acquisition of the SONY a9 II did not hurt either …

To see more San Diego images created with the 2-6, check out the blog post here.

with love, artie

Learn about joining me in Homer, AK for Bald Eagles here.

See the free Eagle Photogrprahy Lessons video here.

 

[Alex Becker]

Very cool interaction frame Artie. I'm glad you're enjoying your Sony kit -- I've been enjoying reading about it on your blog. Nice HAs from both. Nice exposure. Love the water BG. I don't particularly mind it, but any reason outside of just it'd be a pain to leave the whitewash on the OOF rock? The 200-600 is an awesome range and seems to pair super well with the A9 I and II. TFS

 

[gail bisson]

I am not feeling the love for this one!:e3
The large OOF rock on the left is a real problem for me. The cut-off wing on the RHS and position of the left wing feels very awkward to me.
Nice and sharp though with both birds having good HA's and being within DOF,
Gail

 

[Bill Dix]

The greeting and juxtaposition of the birds is wonderful, as is the IQ. The oof rocks are unfortunate; it's too bad you couldn't have taken a few steps to your right. Did you consider a tight crop to eliminate the oof rocks while still keeping the wonderful heads?

 

[John Mack]

Digging the pose on the right pelican. Wish that rock wasn't there but thats nature for you. Love the soft blue background.

 

[Arthur Morris]

Very cool interaction frame Artie. I'm glad you're enjoying your Sony kit -- I've been enjoying reading about it on your blog. Nice HAs from both. Nice exposure. Love the water BG. I don't particularly mind it, but any reason outside of just it'd be a pain to leave the whitewash on the OOF rock? The 200-600 is an awesome range and seems to pair super well with the A9 I and II. TFS

Cleaning all the whitewash would be very unnatural ...

with love, artie

 

[Arthur Morris]

The greeting and juxtaposition of the birds is wonderful, as is the IQ. The oof rocks are unfortunate; it's too bad you couldn't have taken a few steps to your right. Did you consider a tight crop to eliminate the oof rocks while still keeping the wonderful heads?

I am glad that they have the cliffs to sit on . I do not like cropping so tightly.

with love, artie

 

[Randy Stout]

• Arthur Morris
• Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
• Capture One 12 Macintosh

Artie:

I found the rocks in the foreground a bit bothersome as well. I adjusted the luminosity and contrast to try and make them less prominent. There were some subtle halos along the rock edges on the original , that I didn't remove, but mainly present this to see if folks feel that this version makes the rocks 'recede' a bit visually.

Cheers

Randy

 

[Arthur Morris]

The greeting and juxtaposition of the birds is wonderful, as is the IQ. The oof rocks are unfortunate; it's too bad you couldn't have taken a few steps to your right. Did you consider a tight crop to eliminate the oof rocks while still keeping the wonderful heads?

Furthermore, I took two large and quick steps to my right to parallel the distended bill pouches. Had I moved further right, I would have been shooting the bird on our right from behind and the two birds would have been on different planes.

with love,artie

 

[Dorian Anderson]

Excellent color, clarity, and sharpness. I might be tempted to make this into a tighter cropped double headshot to lose the rock and highlight the facial expressions.

 

[dankearl]

I am also on the Lose the Rock bandwagon but your explanation is good and I can see from
a DOF and angle perspective, why you shot where you did.
Still to one of your best...

 

[Arthur Morris]

• Arthur Morris
• Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
• Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 (Macintosh)

Thanks, Randy et. al. By popular demand ...
with love, artie

 

[Bill Dix]

I like it.

 

[dankearl]

Now we're talking... Nice.

 

[arash_hazeghi]

I really like the repost, but the IQ is no longer great after the tight crop...not much fine details. signature colors

TFS

 

[Arthur Morris]

I really like the repost, but the IQ is no longer great after the tight crop...not much fine details. signature colors

TFS

Thanks Arash. That is why I do not like big crops

with love, artiee