The Gull Made me do it!

[Sandy Witvoet]

Just renewing my BPN Membership this past week, I happened to remember my first photo that inspired me to pursue better bird photography. I had been "lurking" around BPN, had studied all the wonderful tutorials as well as the incredible images here, and had just gotton my Adv. P/S: Canon Sx-10 IS. Made my way to the local Holiday Inn beach in Mid-March, (2009!) laid down between snow piles... and this accommodating Ring-Billed Gull was "hanging out"... (probably just waiting for tourists with some popcorn!) Folks in the Holiday Inn restaurant were kinda looking out the window at me... (oh well, whatever! I'm on a MISSION!)

I liked the Gull's posture and the OOF "Last Fall's" swirling leaves. The IQ leaves a lot to be desired, but thought I would share my story with you.

Hope to post more recent images if this EIGHT FEET of snow we've gotten ever leaves this year.
Thank you BPN and to all the incredible talent here.

[Iain Barker]

Hi Sandy

I'm glad you have renewed I find your comments helpful to my own improvement and i enjoy seeing your images.
I wonder if when you originally took this you thought "The IQ leaves a lot to be desired..." Its amazing how picture take sometimes only a short while ago we would now do differently.

Looking forward to seeing more of you images soon.
Iain

[tomroper]

Thanks for sharing Sandy. It's always interesting to look back at our early photos and realize how far we've come.

[Diane Miller]

Good story, Sandy, and glad to hear you'll keep hanging out here! I certainly can see the difference with my older images, and deleting them with some regularity saves a lot of hard drive space! Every so often I'll have reason to click on a keyword in Lightroom and see all the image tagged with it. I'll put them in chronological order and slash and burn! (And there are always a few worth re-working, for which I'm grateful that I've always shot RAW.)

[Sandy Witvoet]

Thanks for looking and for your comments Iain, Tom and Diane! I am certainly looking forward to being able to submit some improvements this year!

[Arthur Morris]

Sharpness looks good and the leaves are great. I would have placed the gull more into the upper left corner. And here is a tip for such situations: once you are set up take lots and lots of images, dozens if not hundreds, when the leaves start to blow.... It is very difficult to anticipate the patterns of the leaves so best is to fire away. Thanks for renewing. And now, get posting!

[Sandy Witvoet]

Thank you Artie! Agree with your comp rec.... actually did make a small print for myself and had placed the gull more to the UL!
Love being a member here.... promise to post more soon!

[Arthur Morris]

YAW; thanks for the heads up. From Japan!