The Pelicans who wouldn't move

Resting Pelicans, Gerringong Boat Harbour, East Coast Australia

I had some time to roam around the Gerringong Boat Harbour recently and wanted to share this pic. I have been doing a lot of very long exposures (10 - 30 minutes) in daylight hours recently and set up for this scene late in the afternoon. There were storm clouds to the east but the western sky was clear so the low light crossing the scene was beautiful.

As I fine tuned the composition and calculated the exposure needed for the 16 stops of ND filter, two pelicans settled on the shoreline. They looked great, hunkered down against the brisk onshore wind but I thought they would fly away at some stage during the 26 minute exposure.

As you can see, they didn’t and although it may not be obvious at smaller sizes they are almost pin sharp. About the only movement is the wind ruffling their feathers. If you click on the picture it will take you to the full vertical composition. there you might notice the ghost images of two rocks in the bottom corner that were moved by the surging waves during the exposure.

As the 26 minutes counted on my phone I went from expecting the pelicans to fly away to willing them to stay!