BROWN PELICAN RESTING ON THE CLIFFS IN LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA

[Mjmagee]

I am new to wildlife photography and would appreciate any feed back on this shot of a Brown Pelican I took while in La Jolla California.

I tried to soften the photo to highlight the bird's eye and chest feathers, and would like to know if the composition is ok.

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[Kathy G]

Michael, this is a wonderful photo of a Brown Pelican. The pelican has great detail and appears properly exposed. The background looks good to me, nicely out of focus and dark enough to not distract from the subject. I like that bit of white rock as it helps separate the dark pelican from the dark background. Since the pelican is looking to the right side of the photo, it would be nice if the pelican was closer to the left of the photo. I suggest that you try cropping to remove some of the sky and the left part of the photo. You might also want to brighten the eye just a teeny bit with local adjustments, that should make the eye pop a bit more.

 

[DRwyoming]

Very nice Michael.

I second Kathy's advice above, think about a bit of cropping on the left that places the bird a bit further left but also removes some or all of the out of focus foreground on the far left of the photo.

A tiny bit of dodging on the right side of the bird's face and eye (left as viewed by us) might help further bring out the eye but it's easy to overdo that so go gently on any brightening (dodging) on the face,.

Really nice image for being new to the game. Well done!

 

[Yezdi]

Beautiful shot.... Kathy's & Dave's advise are spot on. A bit a cropping on the left and little of the sky will give a complete different perspective to your image.

 

[gordon_g]

Yep 100% agree with Dave, Kathy and Yezdi!

 

[ssheipel]

I like the framing, the context given, but agree that getting the subject a bit out of dead vertical centre might improve on what's already a nice shot!