Pelican feeding.
Pelican feeding as sun fades.
Pelican feeding as sun fades.
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Oct, 2018Views
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Awards
Winner in Pelicans Photo Challenge
People's Choice in Pelican Brief Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
All Star
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rank
Top 20 rank
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo at Melbourne Zoo. They have a lovely water and bush area which attracts lots of birds as well as the pelicans.Time
This photo was taken mid afternoon in summer. The light varied between soft and speckled due to shadows from the trees and bushes, to harsh in direct sunlight.Lighting
Summer sun at around 2.00pm is pretty harsh, even with bushes, so I turned down the exposure by 1/3 of a stop. I also nearly always use spot metering on the camera in harsh sunlight. This exposes for the pelican, but made the surrounds darker, which was fine with me. I waited till I had mixed shadow and and direct sunlight in the area of the pelican, and also to when the pelican was doing something interesting, in my case its bill was open as it was looking for food. So as they were swimming about (there were 3 or 4 of them), as they neared the speckled sunlight area I prepared to shoot.Equipment
This was a handheld shot with my Fuji XT2 and 100-400mm lens.Inspiration
I love the pelicans, they seem sort of top heavy with their giant bills, and when they flap their wings, they sort of strike a pose like a weightlifter....a look at me pose with wings bent in half. So I knew they always looked interesting, but the key was to see if I could capture them doing something interesting instead of just swimming.Editing
I used Capture One for the raw editing and then photoshop. Basically, I darkened the photo right down with curves and used a vignette. The pic was already darker at the edges because of the spot metering. Darkening it enhanced the light and a bit of dodging and burning finished it off. It ended up looking like a sunset picture by spot metering, turning down exposure and curve darkening in PS.In my camera bag
I normally only carry 2 lenses, depending on what I think I will shoot. My go to lens is the Fuji 50-140, my bird lens is 100-400mm. I have a x2 adaptore too but seldom use it. I also use the wide 16-55mm Fuji. My only non Fuji lend is the macro which is a 50mm Zeiss Touit which I love.Feedback
Always be ready to shoot high speed multiple images with birds, you just never know when some interesting pose/action is about to happen. Dont dismiss harsh sunlight out of hand. Shoot raw, spot meter, turn down exposure a little bit. You can get a great effect with spot metering, making it look like a sunset picture.
