White Pelicans in Flight

I finally got a decent in-flight shot of a bird!! I know this is not a big deal for some, but believe me, it's huge for me. I've been trying and trying and until today was unsuccessful at getting anything decent of an in-flight bird. I had about an hour with these pelicans this morning before they took off. I've got a bunch more shots to process, but I was so excited about this one I just had to get it posted.

There is a group of 12-15 white pelicans hanging out at the Baskett Sough NWR in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. These birds generally aren't seen in these parts. I'm not sure what they're doing here. This group has been here for about a month or more.

So, tell me, how'd I do?

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I find it extremely hard to get a picture of a bird on the ground let alone getting them in flight.

I like this pic alot,the only thing i would comment on is the sky looking too blue, but coming from Scotland I'm not used to seeing blue skies so I have forgotten what they look like

Thanks for the comment. Believe it or not, I didn't adjust the saturation of this image one bit. I took it in JPEG and darkened the highlights a little and cropped it -- nothing else. I know what you meant about the blue, but it was an amazing morning with an amazing sky.

I don't normally shoot in jpeg, but someone told me to try the sport mode when doing in-flight shots. When you do that, it automatically reverts back to jpeg instead of RAW.

Thanks again for the comments.

Nice catch to have two in flight together. Personally I think the blue is fine. I just had a day around here that had completely bright blue skies and my pics have the super bright blue background.

they are great
and my shots seem to be overly blue just lately too
I guess all because the sky was beautiful when I took them

it's great that you got the pelicans in flight
I don't know how they lift themselves at all
I love watching them when on the ground but wonder were they ever meant to fly

you just proved that they are

very nice
beautiful bodies legs and wing span

thanks
not often we get to look up to them

Nice captures. You got both of them in flight and in great focus. The exposure looks good also. Nice work!

Thanks Wizard, Marie and Keith. I appreciate the comments.

I was fiddling with my gear when these guys initially took off, then wouldn't you know it, my CF card filled up just at the WRONG time! They took great pity on me, however. I think they recognized my ineptitude -- they circled back around and gave me another chance at them!

Boy, was that lucky.

Spot on here, the shots show excellent detail, exposure and focus.
Terrific to get two together. Well done.

Here's another one where I caught some more.

What do you think? I was literally almost shooting directly into the morning sun (8:00). As these weren't shot in raw, I'm unsure how to tone down the blown parts. Any suggestion?

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The second shot is even better. Looks like they are about to do some acrobatic stunt in-flight. Wonderful shot.

wow
thats beautiful

Excellent! I love that first one, such great detail, the exposure looks good to me and I'd never complain about a 'too blue' sky! I hate shooting against a washed out gray/white sky. The second is great too, how lucky to see so many at a time!

A very nice pair of images here. Great exposure, detail and color in the first image...love the stacked pose in the second.

Hi,
great colors and exposurein # 1.
As Gary mentioned the stacked pose in # 2 is great.
Amazing how gracefull these birds are in flight.
Regards,
Clare

Thanks everyone for the great comments. I'm going to post some more that I just got processed. Although, I have to say that one of the images I'm just posting. I didn't do one thing to it. No cropping, no nothing.

Thanks again.