At the Zoo-Pelicans

So I went to the zoo. Not always my favorite activity, as I find it somewhat depressing, but the Prague Zoo is awesome... lots of animals without cages, but rather large habitats. No metal bars, but little cut-offs with streams and whatnot. There's even an exhibit with lemurs, where they're literally running over your feet and swinging above you. Anywho- I took a lot of pictures. These are some that I took of pelicans.
AND I learned how to resize them! Yay me! (but mostly all those helpful people)


1. Straight Up and Down





2. A Little Bit Grumpy




3. Feetsies





Okay- I'm really sorry- the last two just won't resize. I've tried four times, and it's resized on Photobucket. :c
Sorry!



4. The Fauxhawk




5. Only a Little Crazed





Thanks so much for the reviews!

Hi Persephoneia! The last two re-sized just fine ...

1. I like the subject of this picture, and I applaud the fact that you could catch a pelican in this pose, but where is the rest of his head? That's a pet peeve of mine, in photography, when people just cut off parts of people's or animals' heads. I don't know why, but it just kind of disturbs me.

2. This one's better, but the pelican is on the left side of the photo, making it really off-balance. When you have a photo like this, it's always good to have at least something on the empty side of the picture. Because, quite frankly, mucky water isn't all too attractive.

3. Same thing. The feet aren't in the middle!

4. Now, this one's nice. It's my favorite of the bunch. It's shot from a great angle and of a great subject. I might just recommend cropping some of that blackish water off on the right-hand side of the paper.

5. Haha! This one made me laugh. It might have been shot better far away, though, so that you could capture the whole pelican, including its beak and the feathers on the top of its head.

Great work! As I'm sure I've told you many times before, you exhibit extreme talent in photography! I am always eager to see more of your work.

- Abigail

P.S. What kind of camera do you use? Just for the sake of wonderment ...

Hey! So I really liked these pictures!

#1 I like how you can see it's fur so well! And the beak looks awesome! But I don't like how you cut off the top of his head.

#2 I like the little moe-hawk thing it has on it's head xD I also liked the angle from which you took the picture.

#3 I liked how you showed the feet. I personally think it would have been better with just the feet and legs instead of the whole chest.

#4 I love this one! I like how you got the wings in motion, it looks really cool! But it bugged me how you cut off the beak, but I understand that you have to crop things.

#5 This one was my favorite! I love how the eyes look crazed. And how the feathers look all rumpled! I also like how it's neck was bent.

Good job with the photographing!

- KAH

Hello there, Persephonia. I hope your trip to the zoo was nice - reminds me that I haven't been there in such a long time, I've just been so busy. Anyways, hope you had a nice time.

Picture #1
This is actually very nice; the pose that the pelican is in is almost stoic-like. I praise you on this; I once tried to capture a close-up photo of a goose, and in short, it didn't go all too well. D: However, being the nit-picky person I am, I have one comment; I dearly wish that you would have included the pelican's full head instead of just chopping the top of it off. It's distracting. Still, bravo.

Picture #2
I love this photo. It has a clean & clearer quality that outshines the other photos. I love how each strand of wet feathers on the pelican are so delicately shown. However, the white feathers are much too bright in the bottom left hand corner. They caused me to squint; this blaring of white is called a hotspot, and is, at most times, frowned upon. They can be prevented by manually setting your white balance (a process you can look up online) or using one of the automatic settings on your camera (might want to read the camera manual again).

Picture #3
Okay, so in this picture I'm assuming you wanted the focal point to be the pelican's feet. Quite frankly, though, I am more drawn to look at the bird's chest because it is where the picture is centered at and what the focus is on. The feet are at the bottom of the picture, and not as clear and sharp as the rest of the photo. If you wanted the focus to be the feet, there are many different angles you could have tried that would have made that idea turn out brilliant. Also, we once again notice the problem of how blindingly white the bird's feathers are.

Picture #4
I love how dark the water is behind the pelican in this picture; it's a beautiful contrast, so bravo there. However, I don't like the angle of this photo.In this photo, however, the blinding white light is toned down and frames the feathers perfectly so that it looks quite beautiful. Just work on the angle next time.

Picture #5
I truly love this one. The pelican seems so eccentric and wild that it makes for a beautiful picture. My only nitpick is that I wish you had included the rest of the bird's beak, but that is just a minor problem and isn't all too distracting. Overall, nice job capturing this bird's 'wild side.'

Overall
Well, Persephonia, these photos will make for some beautiful keepsakes. They truly show the pelican's behavior and personality, which is fantastic. You have a definite knack for photography, but right now it's just about developing/honing that talent. So keep at it.

Mizz