Wildlife Photography is About Waiting

Much of wildlife photography is about waiting, sometimes for hours, in the cold and wind or even bugs and heat.  (I'm more a fan of cold and wind than bugs and heat) As a photographer you must wait for the wildlife to show up, for them to be in the right light, at the right angle, with the right background, for them to catch that fish, be close enough for you to capture it. When those things happen, you have to have all of your settings right for correct exposure or be able to change it as your tracking your subject, freezing or blurring action, your lens on panning or static mode, be sure to get that eye in focus or it's a failed shot, and more.  So many things must fall into place for that "winning shot". This is not that shot as many of the things did not come together in this shot, however some of it did and he did catch the fish. 

One thing I learned about photographing fishing birds in flight, after 2 days of standing in the cold and wind from sunup to sundown is that it's harder than it looks and I need a lot more practice.  This particular shot was taken from the boat of an eagle watching cruise out of Coeur d'Alene, hand held, so I'm happy to have it at all.  Standing on a moving boat in the cold and wind and sometimes freezing rain presents a whole other host of challenges.  Boy was it worth it though!  I hope I get to do it again next year.  In the meantime, I have a lot of practicing to do. LOL

American White Pelican at Swan Falls Dam

I saw this American White Pelican recently when I was down at Swan Falls Dam.  I think it's a cool looking bird and I was surprised to find it there.  I love how the early morning light cast a nice glow on the scene and the reflections.  I love reflections!  I like this close-up shot very much, but I think the ones with the dam in the background add a bit more interest.

In this second image, I included the dam in the background to get a sense of place and the environment where I found the bird.  I really like the compression of the environmental shot and the clarity of my subject in both shots that I got from my new lens.

I added a filter in Adobe Lightroom 5 to this version of the image to add an erosion effect that makes the image seem much older than it is.  I also added a canvas-type textured look to the image.

This last version of the image was converted to black and white.  It's hard for me to choose a favorite. 

Which version of this image do YOU like best?  I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. Please let me know in the comments.