Ivory Gull no. 2

[John Chardine]

Here's another rendition of the Sambro, Nova Scotia Ivory Gull, this time with just natural light of the setting sun. I decided to keep the large, red, OOF object because I like the colour interest it provides.

I cropped a little off the top, lightened the eye to bring out more detail, and ran some NR on BG.

I hope you like it. Comments welcome of course!

Canon EOS 50D, 70-200 mm @ 200 mm
capture date: Monday, 26 January, 2009 4:46 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/1000
aperture: f5.6
exposure bias: +0.3 (because of dark BG)
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Excellent exposure John and good detail in the whites. The wonderful eye contact and dark BG really makes this image for me. At first I was tempted to remove the golden light to the right but the more I looked at this image the more I agreed with your choice. It has more drama with the wonderful addition of the color. Fine work.

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely light and details, John. I agree that the OOF area on the right adds something but I would darken it a little. A tiny crop from above may be an option.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great light, details and head angle. I like the details in the eye and the OOF object helps the composition.

[Per-Gunnar Ostby]

I really like the golden light in the right. very nice

[Jim Fenton]

Well....

I hate to be a stick in the mud but I'd rather have a darker negative space than the OOF bright (bright relative to the rest of the background) area as my eye simply is drawn to that first and it leaves the image kinda unbalanced to me.

Other than that, sweet light and a beautiful subject.

[Richard Stern]

Glad you got good looks.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

Loverly bird and light. What WAS the o-o-f object? Great job on the eye.

[John Chardine]

It kind-of looks like an OOF bird in the BG and I could say it was that but I won't. It was one of those large metal things that you tie ships up to, painted red. The smaller ones are called cleats but the larger ones, I'm not sure.

Many thanks for all the encouraging comments. I will always remember the encounter with this bird.

I have one more to post, this time whole bird rather than head portrait.

[Tony Whitehead]

The big ones are bollards I think, John.

[Arthur Morris]

Good one Tony. That is a life-word for me:
<DL><DT class=hwrd>Main Entry: <DD class=hwrd>bol·lard http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?bollar01.wav=bollard')) </DD><DT class=pron>Pronunciation: <DD class=pron>\ˈbä-lərd, British also -ˌlärd\ </DD><DT class=func>Function: <DD class=func>noun </DD><DT class=ety>Etymology: <DD class=ety>perhaps from bole </DD><DT class=date>Date: <DD class=date>circa 1775 </DD></DL>1: a post of metal or wood on a wharf around which to fasten mooring lines2: bitt (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitt) 13chiefly British : any of a series of short posts set at intervals to delimit an area (as a traffic island) or to exclude vehicles

(The above from Mirriam-Webster On-line Dictionary.)

That led me to bitt which was somewhere in the back of my mind:

<DT class=hwrd>Main Entry: <DD class=hwrd><SUP>1</SUP>bitt http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?bitt0001.wav=bitt')) </DD><DT class=pron>Pronunciation: <DD class=pron>\ˈbit\ </DD><DT class=func>Function: <DD class=func>noun </DD><DT class=ety>Etymology: <DD class=ety>probably from Middle French bitte, ultimately from Old Norse biti beam </DD><DT class=date>Date: <DD class=date>1593 </DD>1 : a post or pair of posts fixed on the deck of a ship for securing lines 2 : bollard (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bollard) 1

I shan't forget either one!

[John Chardine]

OK let's go on a tangent! This is the offending item from snaps taken by my friend at the time. The "bollard" has arms like the smaller one in the second image but they are hard to see because they are facing away and towards the camera.

[John Chardine]

Here's a smaller version. Yes the Ivory Gull was tame!