Ring-billed Gull

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Florida. There is a concrete promenade and wall surrounding this lake built I think in the 1930's as a WPA project. The gulls like to congregate at on area of the wall and roost. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciate. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix metering 0 EV ISO 110, WB warmed slightly in post, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, lovely composition and I really like the fact the eye is visible, but is it that black with almost zero depth/detail??? Be nice to have just a hint of depth if possible. With that low ISO I might have gone to f/9 to get more DoF and cranked the ISO up whilst retain a good SS. The Blue of the sky and 'Whites' of the plumage work well.

TFS
Steve

[gail bisson]

Excellent DOF and feather detail.
Nice pose.
I wonder if you can do a bit of eye work to show the pupil a bit?
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot these tight crops can sometimes look a little awkward to compose but this one looks great to me. The eye does look at tad dark - quite probably because it was! I sense you could brighten it a little but it could easily be overdone.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing, commenting, and suggesting improvements. Very much appreciated.

Here is an edit where I worked on the eye to open the exposure a tad.

[gail bisson]

The repost is terrific Joe! I hope people come back to look at this!
gail

[Mike Poole]

I came back for another look - and am glad I did - nice RP Joe

[Jonathan Ashton]

Spot on!