A different challenge

Thank you all so much for your comments on my previous post.

This is somewhat different now here geographicly almost dead centre(english spelling) of the USA. GULLS?? We get thousands so hey lets practice flight shots almost like being home in Eastbourne.

Tuttle Creek Lake spillway they let water out and the Gulls and Bald Eagles fish it's a food conveyor belt.

So two for the price of one the Ringed Bill Gull is watching for dropped lunch.

I've tried to depict the action Critique,Comments Advice most welcome and thanks for looking.

Canon 1D3 Canon 70-200mm 1:2.8 L USM = Extender EF 1.4X 111 handheld
ISO 400 245mm f/5.0 1/3200 sec minus 10 windchill bright sun.
RAW to lightroom then re-sized to post.
Question: is light room the media to use for noise reduction?

Barry, for me it doesn't work that well. I think for more impact it needs to be cropped more. You could even try a vertical?
Rene de Heer

Rene,
I see what you mean, does this work better?

Hi Barry, it does lack impact for me to difficult sometimes to translate a scene to camera ... LR is fince for BR but all noise reduction decreases sharpness .... 1D3 @ iso 400 does that need noise reduction?

Hi Barry you must have reposted as I was typing, it is better IMHO

Not sure about this one Barry but I do like the way the gull is looking at the action. I think a crop half between the two could work

Bob

The second one is better for sure!
Rene de Heer

I'm afraid this one doesn't do anything for me Barry. It just lacks any real impact and despite going through various compositional ideas in my head I cannot see any way I could improve it.

I have to agree with everyone thats commented so far on this one, Barry. The repost is a slight improvement and the contact between the birds adds a little but it's not quite working. Keep em coming as your recent owl shots were very good.

Andy...

I think they are just too far apart to be intimate, not quite connecting. The crop works better though.

Now I find that very interesting guy's sure a mundane shot when you first looked at it and by no means the best in the series either. I tried to apply the rule of thirds and keep both gulls in focus with the black and white issue looming too.

Three images later the gull catching the fish moves just below the surface with eyes wide open but still it proves that you can't make a good image out of a pig's ear.

I like the second image as the birds make a nice diagonal across the image and are not lost against the drama of the waves as in the first image. You have caught the LH bird in the act of looking, perhaps in anticipation, at what the other bird is doing. The waves are quite dramatic and enhance the effect of the bird diving in the water. The picture tells a story for me, I like it a lot.

I like pigs' ears, slugs, snails, worms etc, etc they all have their place in The Great Scheme of Things

David

That was my acid test to see if the picture told the story.

I prefer the second image and yes it does tell a story although not a dramatic one, but then most stories aren't dramatic are they? It most certainly is not a pigs ear.

Nick.

I definitely prefer the second image, and I quite like it actually

Oscar