Mr Percival, Big Boy and Babe sing!

This one is the reason I wait every week to see the choice for POTW. There is a wonderful sense of harmony here. The delightful clear blue sky just pops out at you, the Pelicans are arranged for a great afternoon of a capella blues (to match the color of the sky). There are very few images of nature that can evoke the kind of emotions that this one does. Someone noted that this is the kind of stuff that inspires Disney. This is so much richer than anything Disney could ever conjure up. This is real life, and these fellows have provided joy and warmth without even knowing they did so. A delight for the senses. It must have been sublime to witness this in real life. I envy you! Now I have a reason to visit down under. I can only hope that I do not have to pay scalpers prices to get seats at their next concert.

 

For what it is worth: no PS work needed. This one is a one-in-a-million shot, and anything you'd do to it would only cheapen it. Let nature take its course. Leave the PSing to amateurs like me who can't find natural images that stand alone!

 

7/7

To echo Nestor's comment, it's amazing to me that you were able to get close enough to this to photograph with a maximum 35mm focal length. Nice action. I like the photo in your folder of Mr. Percival by himself, as well. These creatures must get pretty friendly if you sit long enough. Nice job. I see no need to change anything.

Best, Barry

I like it the way it is. I like how the seagulls seems to be the very captivated audience of the pelicans show.

Impressive shot!!

I am personally in favor of leaving images as they were taken. Personally I only touch up scan errors, dust etc. besides cropping and USM.

Cloning isn't cheating if the (i.e., your) rules allow it. It's altogether different if you are playing by someone else's rules and they don't allow cloning, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. I'd keep the bottom sea gull in the photo. As pointed out earlier, he/she anchors the bottom of the photo and creates a dialog with the singers.

 

This is overall a wonderful photo, but I'm really bothered by the composition. It's too close. Zooming out or taking a step back would include all of the sea gull in the bottom left foreground and the rest of the birds on the right hand side. I think it would result in a cleaner, less cluttered and hopefully more elegant photo.

Amazing! Big Boy gives a performance! This picture is simply amazing!

Cloning out any of the pelicans would rob the image of its authenticity. The image only works for me because it's clearly not staged, but a rare hilarious moment that personifies the birds. Cloning and polishing would produce an image that is merely cute.

I love this photograph.

As if this scene wasn't great enough as it was, you chose such an angle that those birds just dominate the frame and make all else (including the viewer) lesser mortals. The circle of gulls playing audience just top off the whole drama. The clarity of colour and detail also add to this wonderful capture. Well done, and no cloning for me.

This is one hellova picture ! I remember when I saw it the first time, I actually stared at it for at least 5 minutes, thinking "So, nature works for Walt Disney nowadays !?". The timing is just amazing and the way all the little ones form a circle around the 3 tenors, as if they were the public must be the best part. How fortunate as well to have this stunning cloud in the background, and finally, what a perfect angle ! The lens distorsions add tremendously to the caricature. I think I'd dare say that this image is the most original wildlife picture I've seen on this site. Simply a masterpiece.

Now this being said how did I find the courage to rate this very good rather than excellent in aesthetics ? The bird in the foreground ? The one in the background ? No, and no again. I like all this little mess around the main actors of this scene. By no means would I clone anything, as I believe these imperfections need to be in order to add realism. The pelican at back left also adds a humoristic touch to this image imo. While the others perform on stage, he doesn't seem to care much at all, and peacefully enjoys life at a slower pace: great little "imperfection" ! So, why not excellent ? Well, for the reason Richard Sintchak stated above: that extra cyan in the sky that gives a slightly artificial look to the whole picture, whereas the magic of this picture is that it feels like a cartoon and yet so real and crisp.

Finally, while I do believe this is the most impressive shot in your portfolio, I must say I like the other pelican pictures a lot as well, and... Here is a totally different image that I find truly fantastic: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1129854

Finally, my only worry would be: how large is this POW file ? I certainly hope it is large enough for a sizeable publication: this picture is worth money - don't let it sleep in the computer ! Try "Janad" in Paris, a great stock library that specializes in wildlife, and they have (or at least used to have) all the European clients you would dream of for this particular image.

Congratulations on an absolutely wonderful image and best of luck for the next photo hunts ! Cheers.

This is my kinda band! I love how you just happened by this talented trio. Now, what is the status of the fourth participant sneaking back into the water? Contract negotiations? :)

 

Seriously, this is wonderful. I would definately enter this in a contest. There is much that can grow out of this photo.

Well done!

As one who, philosophically, does not mess with my shots, I would strongly suggest to leave as is. I would leave as is for another reason as well... as others have mentioned, the color saturation / sharpness etc. all seem to suggest to many of us an illustration (Pixar computer animation style). Your comment that this is untouched sends the viewer a powerful incentive to look at the image again (and again...). where you to make even the slightest modification (digitally), the loss in photographic integrity (believability and therefor enjoyability) would so overwhelm the compositional improvment as to be, to my mind, a bad way to go.

You got the shot... don't mess with excellence.

 

Thanks for sharing this with us,

 

Pete Sherman

Very Henri Cartier Bresson. Lovely stuff.

What a fabulous shot!! We're ALL laughing out loud. :-) Clone, don't clone, that's your decision ... IMO the seagulls make the audience!! Great work!!

Fantastic! No need to remove anything, leave the clone tool alone.

I concur with the rest, The focus is drawn to the three and the gull helps add depth as well as complete the circle.

Due to demands at work, I've been watching from afar for the past several months.

 

But the elves' (and John's) question is literally screaming at me to add my "NO" to the cloning question. To me, it "is" cheating, although I readily admit the picture might be aesthetically improved by removing the background pelican.

 

But, why not be happy with what you have?... a wonderfully timed - and very lucky - capture taken with no small amount of skill (most notably the shooting angle). Flawless? No. Exceptional? Yes.

John - What a photo! Everything comes together so well; the subjects, the vivid colors, the composition - they're all technical achievements in and of themselves. The added humor and the unspoiled joy of this photo places it into the realm of accomplishment. Congratulationss on this fantastic photo. I'm hard to please, but when I look at this photo, I'm pleased... and maybe a little jealous. :-)

Amazing shot - the birds off center are perfectly symmetrical - the image almost has noise!

 

Great work!

John,

 

Absolutely wonderful! The timing, the composition, the skill.

 

I come to the POW page every week to see what's here. Never has an image jumped out at me the way your's has. Don't PS this; it's not perfect (what image is) and that's a part of its charm.

 

The story is there for all to see; I'd hate to see it compromised in any way.

WHERE IS NEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wouldn't touch a thing. We're only suppose to remove the little annoying

things to improve a photo. This one, I see nothing annoying!

 

Superbe !

Hi John,

I already commented on this photo in another forum.This is such a cool pic the way it is. Very well done!

One of the best widlife photogrpahs I have ever seeen in the recent past. What an enthalling performance! What are they singing? An Opera?

 

Having said that I must say the fourth pelican on the left sits like a lazy duck. I guess, it could be removed using photoshop to make the picture better. Thanks. P.

Not only singers - but also an audience!

 

Congratulations!

Has anyone noticed the curves of the image? The whole image is FLUID. The mountains are cut at their lowest points by the pelican necks, the heads are curvy, the wings are curvy, the seagulls are curvy, even the coastline is curvy. It's quite awesome. :)

I think this image obviously succeeds more as a work of humor than it does as some

serenity-invoking, nature-in-all-it's-grandeur wildlife image. So in that case, I say

CROP THE SUCKER! He forms an uncomfortable tangent with the pelican's foot. While

you're at it, clone out that forth pelican. It's the only thing in the way of near perfect

background symmetry between all three main pelicans. Also, is it just me, or does

the color seem off a bit...? cheers