Three Pelicans In Low-Level Flight. Waddell Beach, California. December 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Three Pelicans fly just above the beach and surf near Waddell Beach along the California Pacific Ocean coastline.
I hope you don’t mind if I indulge – yet again – in my pelican obsession! I’m endlessly fascinated by these wonderful birds found, among other places, along the California Pacific Ocean coastline. (Note: This morning I read the unfortunate news that the pelicans may be undergoing some sort of stress this winter and some fear one of the periodic pelican “die-offs.”)
I photographed these birds on a dark and cloudy early December day. A bit earlier I had spotted a first group of them descending from above bluffs to the south to land at the delta of Waddell Creek along this beach. Gradually a few more groups of them arrived until there were a good number collected in a group. After a few moments, and for no reason that I could discern, they all lifted off at the same moment and flew across the beach in front of me, at first mere inches off the surface of the sand, and then turning out to sea and rising above waves before disappearing.
Trust me, I can make sharp photographs of pelicans. But here I like the obvious blur from the camera motion and from the motion of the birds through the air as well as from their moving wings – to me this image more strongly suggest their nearly constant motion than the sharper photographs I’ve made of them.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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keywords: pacific, ocean, sea, coast, highway, one, coastal, california, usa, pelican, bird, wildlife, fly, flight, low, beach, sand, water, surf, wave, motion, blur, wing, beak, shadow, feather, nature, waddell, creek, beach, big basin, state, park, shore, shorline, stock
Thank you, Danka! I appreciate your comment and am glad you like this work.
Dan
Although, I am a fan of b&w photography, this work and your other works from Pelicans series are incredibly beautiful. I love the soft, delicate sophisticated colours in these works and what to add? …. :) I wish I was able to do such great works in a future:) Pleasure to visit your website:)
No, the one in the studio is black and white IIRC. This one has some color in it.
Is it silly to say I like the colors better in this one, though? Or maybe I’m looking at the wrong thing in your studio. Hmmm. Maybe it’s just my eyes.
Okay, I want this one somewhere on a wall. Pretty please? Maybe a bird series? Because I want that other beautiful one too … the one of the egret where you see the body through the feathers sort of … you know? (https://gdanmitchell.com/gallery/v/NaturalWorld/Nature/Wildlife/EgretAlights20081130.jpg.html) Maybe the flock of gulls as a third? (https://gdanmitchell.com/gallery/v/NaturalWorld/Nature/Wildlife/SeagullFlockPiedrasBlancas20090702.jpg.html)
C’mon, make your wife some prints! She is, after all, one of your biggest fans.
Um. Not as in her size, mind you. I hope. Or maybe she IS just that large. Dunno. I’m not gonna look in a mirror and check, that’s for sure.
Sorry … the OldBoeBrain kind of took over and started rambling. I’ll leave now. ;-)
Ah, how to reply… :-)
Of course you are my biggest fan only in terms of high regard for my photos! Who could think anything else?
And this pelican photo is one I like a lot. (If you go into the studio – advantage of living with the photographer* – there is one large test print there of another “pelican” flight that you can grab right away.
Dan
* Spouses and significant others of photographers probably know living with a photographer isn’t always an advantage. Though you are very patient about putting up with my exclamations of “Do you see that light!?” and with frequent wanderings. :-)
Marvellous image. I am with you on the blur – it makes for a much more compelling scene.
Thanks for the comment, Rajan!
Steve, thanks for your faith in my ability to make a sharp print! :-) Oddly, this is the sort of thing that one occasionally must mention – not everyone understands that motion blur can be a good thing. I’m getting a kick out of discovering how much harder it is to manage this blur and get a workable photo than it is to get another sharp bird photo!
Thanks for noticing that bit of color, too. I thought about taking this to black and white – I actually made monochrome test prints – but I just can’t bring myself to give up that subtle bit of color.
Take care,
Dan
Love the once of color on their heads and their shadow Dan.
I trust you on the sharpness issue and fully understand on why you are mentioning it.
SS