Imperial Shag collecting for nest

[Anthony]

It seems to have had very specific requirements.

[Mike G]

Very nice Anthony

[Jan Anne]

Very nice series Anthony but the first is one simply awesome, the action, the pose, the small DOF with a hint of snow (or foam) in the background are very well done.

That said I don't like the light, the bird is backlit which looses some nice details on the front of the bird with the current processing.

Instead of talking about it I took the liberty to pull your image through CNX2 and use the Color Control Point feature to lift the greens of the seaweed and the blues of the eye for a more balanced image. The images might look a bit overcooked now but thats because I had to work with the small JPG but you should get the idea

[Anthony]

Mike, Jan Anne, thank you.

Jan Anne, your edit is an improvement.  I will go back to the nef and re-edit.  I was nervous about overdoing the extraordinary blue of the eye, because nature is so much more powerful than Photoshop, but your edit shows that I can be a bit bolder and still fairly present that blue as it really was.

The background is snow.

[elsa hoffmann]

Quite a beautiful bird - I have never seen anything like that.
Beautiful captures and JA's edit is good for me too.

[Anthony]

Thank you Elsa.  It is a type of cormorant.  The blue eyes are a lovely feature.

[elsa hoffmann]

Now that you mention it - I can see its Cormorant of some sorts. Thanks for the info

[BW]

Lovely birds! Where are these photos taken? Never seen the bird before.

[Anthony]

Thanks, Børge, glad you like it.

The location was Half Moon Island, South Shetland Islands, part of Antarctica.

I have updated my edit to reflect JA's ideas, but have not posted the revised version here.

[BW]

Looking forward to seeing more pictures from that part of the world

[Anthony]

More to come.  In the meantime, you can see some more by searching penguins on this site.

[Richard A]

That blue eye is really something special

[Erik Lund]

Really nicely crisp and I like the framing.

I'm with JA on this, and I would even brighten the whole exposure up and then just pull the darkest parts down again in RAW

[Anthony]

Thanks, Richard and Erik.  I agree that the whole exposure can usefully be brightened.

Here is another, on a different island.