Herring Gull from Bonaventure

[John Chardine]

Just returned from second (excellent) trip of year to Bonaventure Island gannet colony. A gannet may appear in the next while but in the meantime, here is a portrait of a cooperative Herring Gull who happened to show up out of nowhere. The bird was ruffling its feathers at the time of image capture.

In case you are wondering the whites are not blown (luminance = 93 was the highest I could find in LAB colour info). Not sure I like the head angle of this capture. The matted feathers on face were from dampness. Cropped to about 60% of original image area.

40D, 70-200mm f4 IS, 1.4 tc giving 280mm
capture date: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 3:31:40 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/500
aperture: f7.1
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: ON - E-TTL, beamer, can't remember compensation

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Wonderful portrait John with excellent exposure and detail. We had the opportunity to go to Bonaventure Island. back in the early eighties when we were still living in Canada. What a wonderful place it is and I will be looking forward to your future posts.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi John,

Lovely whites and great details. I wish for more room in front but that's about it for me. The eye is incredible.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I really love the feather detail here John! The whites look great. P.S. according to EXIF flash compensation was -0.3 :-)

[Arthur Morris]

I like the whites and the head angle but even more I like the fact that I am headed to Bonaventure for another week tomorrow morning, leaving Orlando 7:05 am, arriving Perce 8:40 pm with a 5-hour layover in CHI.

[John Chardine]

I think your weather luck may continue Artie. We had drizzle, rain, fog and cloud, which isn't bad for white birds. Could have done without the rain. Forecast is for an improvement. The gannet chicks are great and there's lots of them! Have a good one as they say!

[Doug Brown]

I like this one a lot John! Great sharpness and exposure control.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the tight composition,eye contact and exposure!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Looks great all around. I like the exposure control, details and BG.