Cresting Gannet

[Don Baldwinson]

I caught this bird cresting a clifftop, and about to descend to his\her nest. I love these perfectly formed animals. E-1, 50-200+Ec14.
Cheers,
Don
http://oink.kiwiwebhost.biz/image/Cresting%20Gannet.jpg

[E B]

An excellent capture with better than average color. You did very well for hand holding the 50-200mm with the TC.

[Garry Frankel]

Yes, the first thing that pops out is how perfect this bird is. Very nice shot.

[Henk Peter]

Beautiful bird, very well captured.
Thanks for sharing.

[Allo]

Amazing shot and so crisp with nice colors!

What a beautiful bird, never seen this type before.

[fotobram]

Good sharp shot. Beautiful bird. Contrary to the other commenters, I am not particularry impressed by the colours. I loaded the picture in PS and applied a simple "auto levels". That version looked much better to me. Just my opinion.

[Don Baldwinson]

Good sharp shot. Beautiful bird. Contrary to the other commenters, I am not particularry impressed by the colours. I loaded the picture in PS and applied a simple "auto levels". That version looked much better to me. Just my opinion.
Could you place your version here, I'm always interested in other peoples takes? The color of the birds head looks pretty close to reality, but I can't remember what the sky was like.
Cheers,
Don

[fotobram]

Should be attached now.

Not sure how fourthirdsphoto and/or different browsers handles embedded colour profiles.
In my firefox browser the attached file seems to look a bit more faint then in Photoshop.

[Don Baldwinson]

Thanks for your version of the image Bram. I can see why you prefer it to the original. The colors are much more saturated, and it appears side by side to be more contrasty. I have been processing my images of this type in a similar way, but have pulled back from there recently, at least for this sort of subject. The orange is far more colorful than the bird really is....even mine is pushing reality a little here, and I'm finding the contrast a bit much when the images are printed. Did you sharpen it further?.....looks like a bit of edge fringing appearing.
However, certainly more powerful than mine, and appealing to many I would think.
Cheers,
Don

[Luke]

Very good capture. Great focus and detail.
The rest is a matter of taste. For most pictures I prefer more contrasty and saturated colors too but my son often prefers the original "as shot" photo's.
Luc

[Hokuto]

You really nailed that one, Don. I love the wing position and of course the nesting material it's carrying. well captured.