Heermann's Gull

[Isaac Grant]

While on a family vacation to Washington I photographed this adult Heermann's Gull while it flew by us. I find these to be the most beautiful of the regularly occurring gulls in North America so it was a species that I wanted to get a photo of. My oldest son and I took a long drive out to Westport Washington which is a small fishing town to try and find Wandering Tattlers, a bird I had never seen before. We were lucky to find 2 of them. Unfortunately they were not in a good spot to obtain a quality photo. However we took a walk on a fishing pier and watched many birds flying by which included plenty of Brown Pelicans and a huge flock of Marbled Godwits. While there this Heermann's Gull made a close pass by us. Photographed in perfect evening light.

Canon 1DX and Canon 100-400ii. 400mm. ISO 640, F5.6, SS 1/4000. Processed with DPP 4.6 and PS.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Isaac, fantastic wing position on this flight pose, and I really like the eye. Good feather detail resulting from your fast ss, and the Gull pops so well against the sea BG. Well captured.

The colours on the head and neck of this Heermaans Gull is similar to our juvie Kelp Gull.

[John Mack]

Love the blue and the flight pose on the bird well done.

[annmpacheco]

Sharp and the colors really pop here. Wing position is terrific and really shows the browns and grays. Love the blue and the red beak, well done.

[Bill Dix]

Great wing position, and good and sharp on the head. The water looks a bit oversaturated; but it can sometimes look that way, and you were there, not me.

[Isaac Grant]

Bill I think you are right. I didn't really mess with the water in post and honestly did not pay much attention to it. But I think that the sensor just did not accurately reproduce the blues in the water. I went back to a few iphone videos I took of my son near the water and it was a bit less saturated. Him and I were actually talking about how blue that cold Pacific water was. And boy was it cold!!! In the repost I went into the blues in hue/saturation and lowered the blues -25 and then the cyan -15. Think it looks better now. Thank you.

[gail bisson]

My first thought when I saw this was the "too blue" water but the repost addresses that issue.
Great wing position and IQ as well as nice light.
Hard to make a "seagull" look pretty but you did a good job here!!:bg3:
Gail