Cormorants, they are about as common as the House Finch! Normally, they are all black with perhaps a hint of yellow or blue. Their greasy appearance and rather unpleasant smell where they perch, they simply don’t receive much love. We had take the ferry from Sydney over to Manly for the afternoon. We were strolling along the beach doing really nothing other than, strolling. We’d seen the Little Pied Cormorant out swimming and foraging, but thought nothing of it. Then on our return stroll, there it was T’d up on a rock. The light wasn’t great but that black and white plumage really stood out. Then with it’s breeding plumage in full regalia and that crazy hair job it creates, wow! But what made me stop and work the subject was the background. You gotta know, the background is everything in my photography and in this case, the slow, gentle waves of the Pacific screamed, “take me!” I put that 20fps of the Z 9 to good use cranking out the shots cause each one was different. Sharon was looking over my shoulder as I went through the five million shots I took. She simply said, “look at that water!” Then I had to decide which set of tones in the background, the stage, made the star, the subject, pop. Well, I finished a whole lot of images and at this moment, this one is my favorite. It’s a very uncommon look of something as common as can be, yet …