Sea Gull

With David H and Tim E posting swan photos and Wayne's backyard birds thought I'd join in. How about a sea gull, La Jolla,CA (wish I was there now)? The shadow on the gull is from my assistant(the wife) as close as we where the gull never moved. Image to me is a bit soft, but in this case I'll take what I can get. Thanks for looking and comments always welcome!

Forgot to mention, I did crop this on both sides and the top to remove some dead space.

David

Lovely shot, David! I think sea gulls are some of the most forgotten birds around. Seems like their abundance lends them to being overlooked.

I love the way his beak and forehead seem to be just peeking out into the light. It may be a bit soft, but frankly I think it just adds to the atmosphere of the image.

Nice work!
Dave H.

I like this. Normally bright spots are bad but this seems to draw you right to the subject. I think maybe its balancing the dark water area.

Hi David, nice shot of the gull. I too noticed the head/beak peeking into the light and thought it added a nice element. I like that you cropped this some and I think you could take it even further by cropping the top and taking it to a 2/3 ratio, further accentuating the gull. Glad you got some time in for photos while there, thanks for posting!

Thanks for the comments guys. I tried to take as many gull and pelican photgraphs as I could ( I may bore you with a few more). the pelican shots aren't that great, so will have to see what I can pull out of one or two. the flight shots were a disappontment, didn't have the shtter speed fast enough to capture anything that turned out sharp. Watching and photographing the seals in La Jolla was a lot of fun, I'll post a few of them in the near future. I was a little concerned with the bright ground in this one to begin with, but there is a good seperation between the ground and the darker water in the background that seems to work. I agree with Wayne that cropping this to a 2/3 ratio would focus more attention on the gull, when I look at hte picture I wonder off looking to see if there is anything in the background, Overall I'd have to say this was one of the best vacations and most photo productive vacation I have ever had. The bonus of course was getting to see my grandson, give him a few years and I'll give him a camera and see what he does, that should be fun. Thanks again for the comments!