Black-headed Gulls on the run!

[Rene' Villela]

Good evening everyone!

A few months back I was on my way home from a businesses trip when I noticed all these birds on the surrounding rice fields. They all were playing, going from one field to the other. It was the first time and the ONLY time I have ever seen them. I stopped my car and started to try to get them on fly and also trying to get a good close up. What was strange is that I was a bit far away from the coast. I was there for a while and all of the sudden one small group took off and they started to fly around and with every lap they took more, and more of them joined them and after they were all up in the air, they just took off West, where the Japanese sea is. Since then I have never seen these black-headed gulls again.

Its a busy shot, I think the BG is good :) and you guys can tell me about the rest! Thank you!

Nikon D300 - (old) AF 300 f/4, AP @ f/8, 1/250 sec, EV -1.0, ISO 200. Cropped on the right and bottom coz it was a bit empty.

[Daniel Cadieux]

René, looks like you had a nice sighting and you did well to document it. As presented I would be tempted to eliminate some of the cut-off birds especially at left edge of frame (not all of them though as you don't want to make it unrealsitically conviniently perfectly placed within the frame). There a couple of stray wingtips at right and bottom that could also disappear. Well done. :-)

[Rene' Villela]

Daniel... This is funny! I didn't like those half birds at the age but I never thought about getting rid of them! Thanks for the tip! :)

[Stu Bowie]

Yep, this is fairly busy Rene', but they all stand out nicely from the clear BG. I agree with Daniel to lose a few wing tips, but thanks for sharing.

[Rene' Villela]

He!He! I cleaned up the tips! I just don't know why I didn't think of it! I cut off not only a few tips but some, not all, of the half birds on the left! It looks better! Ah! Since I was at it, I added a couple of birds in a whole somewhere there! :) Thank you!