Brown Pelican, La Jolla Cove, La Jolla California

The Point and Shoot Superzoom cameras I favor for their easy of use and portability continue to improve year to year, model to model…slowly eroding the limitations of the class…and making more and more challenging images not only possible, but easy. The Sony RX10iv that I am using now has hybrid auto focus, just like the DSLRs the pros use, and that has made birds in flight, again, not only possible but easy. It used to be that when I visited the cliffs at La Jolla or Point Loma north and south of the Mission Bay Park/Sea World area where the San Diego Birding Festival is held every year, I would be happy to come back with one really good shot of a Brown Pelican in flight out of hundreds of attempts. On this trip, with the Sony RX10iv, I came back with more than 50 pelicans-in-flight shots I would not hesitate to share, out of an equal number of attempts. Score one for technology! This bird was coming in over the surf at La Jolla Cove when I caught it. I like the troubled water behind it, as opposed to the an expanse of open water or sky…which is the more usual shot. The closeness to the water also gives more of a sense of scale. Sony RX10iv at 420mm. Program mode with “action” modifications. 1/1600th @ f7.1 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.