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In the Field
Pelican with Mouth Agape. Bow River, Calgary, AB, Canada. September 12, 2004.
Two things attracted me to this image. The first was the animal's behaviour. I'm not sure why the pelican was stretching its bill skyward (clearing its throat perhaps?), but it added drama to the image. The second was the extreme range of brightness - the water was nearly jet black and the bird contained zones of absolute white. This brightness range added more drama to the scene.
The extreme brightness range of this image is really tricky to handle photographically (with film or digital). Here's one way to accomplish it when shooting digitally: 1) Expose for the highlights, not the shadows; 2) Shoot in RAW format; 3) Make multiple conversions from RAW to TIFF, each with a different exposure setting (in this case I converted the image 3 times - once for the water, once for brightest whites of the pelican, and once for the few mid-tones on the pelican's back); 4) Composite the images in your favourite image editor (I use Photoshop for this type of work) and show/hide selected portions of each image using image masks. Sounds easy - right? Well...sort of. And, it's fine if you have time and your workflow is based on quality (and not speed). But, if you have a workflow that is based on rapid delivery of images, well...forget it! You'll have to wait for improved image sensors...
Behind the Camera
Pelican with Mouth Agape. Bow River, Calgary, AB, Canada. September 12, 2004.
Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 200.
Nikon D2H with Nikon 200-400 mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR lens @ 400 mm (600 mm equivalent with digital conversion factor) supported on Gitzo 1348 carbon fibre tripod with Wimberley head. VR turned to "On" and in "Normal" mode.
1/1500s @ f5.6; -1.0 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
At the Computer
Pelican with Mouth Agape. Bow River, Calgary, AB, Canada. September 12, 2004.
Details to follow.
Conservation
Pelican with Mouth Agape. Bow River, Calgary, AB, Canada. September 12, 2004.
Information to follow.