Brown Booby

Canon 7D, 500mm f/4, Handheld on a boat.

1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 400

Crop to 63% (11.4 of 18MP)

This is a Brown Booby, taken at Bird Island, off shore from Puerto Penasco. It's about an hour boat ride to islands where there are thousands of Brown Boobies and sea lions, as well as a smattering of Blue-footed Boobies, Magnificent Frigatebirds, and Red-billed Tropicbirds.

The boobies are definitely challenging to shoot. They are such lanky birds that they quickly fill the frame, without that many pixels actually being on the bird, which makes it hard to get much detail. It's also hard to get good detail in the underwings without blowing whatever small patch of whites are catching the sun. And of course shooting a moving target with a handheld big lens on a moving boat is a whole other story. I shot many many frames of these, and got some passable shots, but certainly nothing fantastic.

I'm interested to see what people think of this. I appreciate the sharpness, and the good look at the face, but wish that there was more detail in the rest of the bird. Your comments and critiques are very much appreciated. Larger version is available.