Judges Comments

This shot of a pelican has the subject positioned large in the frame, in the foreground, and in focus while the background blurs to give a sense of depth and distance. The use of tone
is also nice in the image with the bird being either highlights or blacks against the mid grey of the remaining image elements. This causes the Pelican to pop nicely in the image.
The highlights on the feathers have been well handled with great detail in the whites, while the blacks may be a bit deep but don't take up much of the image space. I also like the
way the pelican had been placed in the frame of the background trees and that the sky has probably been darkened from a bright white that would otherwise take our eye out of the frame.