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image pelican.sunset.dive.c03.16.2012.c45i4537.b-800.jpg is Copyrighted by Roger N. Clark, www.clarkvision.com

Pelican Sunset Dive: The Right Place, The Right Time

A pelican dives off the coast of Florida, passing right in front of the sun.

Technical. Canon EOS-1D Mark IV digital camera, 70-200 mm f/4 L IS lens + 1.4x teleconverter, 280 mm, f/8, ISO 400 1/8000 second, aperture priority. The pelican was diving at a rate of 36 degrees per second, or the equivalent of 31,000 pixels per second. Timing difference of more than two milliseconds would have meant that the bird would not have been centered on the sun.

Warning! Be careful about trying this! The sun was pretty bright but did not hurt my eyes to look at as the sun was only 1 degree above the horizon, and my exposure to the sun while tracking the fast moving pelican was less than about 1/4 second. If the sun was a little higher and the atmosphere clearer, this would have been dangerous and I would not have tried it. I started imaging the pelicans about a half hour earlier, and any time they got close to the sun, I broke off. This sequence was the first set that I allowed the sun to enter the frame as the sun had finally gotten low enough.

Wild and free. No calls or bait were used to acquire this image.

To learn how to obtain stunning images like this, please visit my Extensive Articles on Photography .


Keywords to this image = florida bird pelican bird_in_flight sunset action canon_1d4

Image ID: pelican.sunset.dive.c03.16.2012.c45i4537.b-800.jpg

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Last updated March 10, 2024