'Its Beak Can Hold More Than Its Belican' Poet Ogden Nash On Pelicans

Pelicans don't 'flock' like this unless they sense danger -- here a

passing tourist dislodged a group of feeding pelicans, photographed

as night approached under cloudy skies. Your ratings and critiques

are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment/Please

share your superior knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! John

Good capture, John. Nice composition, colors and light. I think that closing a little more the diaphragm, could give a better DOF. Best regards!

I actually like the fact that the pelicans ate slightly out of focus, it gives a real sense of movement. The composition of the birds on the page coming down from the right of the frame is very pleasing. The colours in the whole shot are lovely, a page of browns & greys highlighted by the yellows in the beaks & feet, great, really great.

I had this 'great capture' on thumbnail, but when I saw it in Photoshop it was blurry, but I did sharpen it, somewhat, but it only would take so much sharpening.

 

I was shooting mostly 'stationary' pelicans, so my camera was set with a very low (100) iso, for practically the first time in my career with a digital camera.

 

Somebody went by a nearby road and 'spooked' them and they flew away suddenly and out of habit I just snapped, hoping for just anything.

 

I got a wonderful composition, but the focus indicator of my multi-area indicator set to 'area mode' on my D200 happened to catch the 'far wing' fo the nearest pelican, resulting in some blurriness, which I've managed to save a little.

 

I often shoot at 400 iso, but then the colors for those stationary pelicans would not have been wonderful, and it was. The D200, underexposed 1/3 stop and shot at VI (slightly enhanced -- vivid, jpegs) produces such wonderful colors it knocked me out of my socks.

 

This is the trade-off -- a slightly blurry action photo.

 

I decided to post anyway.

 

Sharpening in smart sharpen -- also tried unsharp mask.

 

I'll provide the original file to anyone who wants to try some sharpening exercises to help -- but you must keep notes to I can replicate, as I can't post your work. This was shot at 1/200th of a sec. at f 5.6, the widest aperture available for effective film equivalent 600 mm shot.

 

I couldn't stop down without reducing my shutter speed to 1/100, 1/50, or lower, which would be unacceptable.

 

The only possible answer would have been some sort of magic adjusting ISO that changes when you shoot moving objects and also stops down the aperture. I don't think auto iso by Nikon would fill the bill, but I'll experiment a little.

 

Thanks, David, for the comment.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

I was so disappointed that this wasn't razor sharp. The real problem was low light. The day was very foggy/overcast and it was near sundown.

 

There just wasn't enough light for 100 iso shooting of action subjects, but no one could have anticipated such a capture. I wasn't shooting action and wanted highest 'quality' and was using 100 iso, for the first time ever. (I shoot 'street often' and always am set at iso 400 or higher)

 

At any other iso setting than 100 the things you remark on, e.g., colors, saturation, etc., (if I understand correctly) would disappear, as Nikon's D200 higher iso captures are somewhat degraded by comparison and not nearly so rich.

 

Thanks for the positive remark.

 

John (Crosley)