Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican -- Crab Cove, Alameda, CA
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS, 1/800s, f/5. ISO:100

If you have any experience trying to shoot birds in flight with a point-and-shoot camera, I think you'll appreciate what an incredible shot this is.  So many things had to go right for this to come out as well as it did, none of which I had much control over and not the least of which was a pelican had to fly almost right over my head at a very low altitude.

For a while there this was probably my best wildlife photograph.  This still might be my best pelican image.  Many of the other top contenders were also taken with my old SX40.

For the record, this is the first photo of mine actually improved by blogger's image auto-tuning.  The tones in the sky are better than the original.  I still wish they'd mind their own business.