Pelican play

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is from the same series of Pelican tossing the twig, which was posted yesterday.
The previous image of the sequence can be found here:
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3081

The action was over within a second. Fortunately, I was watching it, else I would have missed this.

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM, EF 2xII, ISO 100, 1/320, f11, full frame image.

Look forward to your comments and critiques.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Nice shot, the action captured is lovely. Nice pose. Wondering whether you could open up the shadows a bit. Why did you use f11? Wouldn't f8 or so have been sufficient?
TFS.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Abhishek,
The distance was close. For example the pelican was 28.70 meters in this case. In previous images the pelicans were about 45-50 meters. The closer is the subject, the lower is the depth of field.

If you check the depth of field, at f11, 800mm, with 1D Mark IV, the depth of field is from 28.4 to 29 meters. At f8, it is 28.5 to 28.9 meters ie. a dof of 0.38 meters. Since the pelican has got a long bill, it becomes difficult to get the entire bill in focus. I estimated, that f11 would be better in this case and used it. When the pelican picked up the twig it was not parallel to the sensor. Fortunately, it turned and while tossing it became parallel to the sensor.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Lovely action captured Sabyasachi, looks like you are doing RnD on your new camera and the Pelican
tfs

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lovely head angle and eye contact. The sticks in the beak add interest. Nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.

[Anuradha Nautiyal]

Another wonderful shot Sabyasachi ..Loved the pose and the detailing on the feathers and the beak/

[Bibhav Behera]

Lovely. No nits here for me.