Breakfast

[Arthur Morris]

This morning, at DeSoto, well, it turned out the be downright scary. This worn first winter Herring Gull was scavenging a long-dead saltwater catfish. The image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6 L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6 set manually. Fill flash with Better Beamer at -1 2/3 stops.

At one point I was thinking that I might die in a tornado. To read the whole story and learn a valuable lesson, check out today's blog post at www.birdsasart-blog.com (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com); Do as I Say..... A Weather Story.

Don't be shy. All comments welcome.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle, soft light, mood and composition. Maybe a bit more saturation? I'm glad you made it back safely!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Axel. I upped the SAT 12 points and then reduced the RED SAT about 20 as the browns looked too red for me.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Really cool behavioral capture Artie. Love the eye contact both with you and the fish. I cannot comment on saturation, it looks like a fine, drab looking juvie I can imagine. Thanks for sharing and let that short lens story be a good education for you! :D Would have been a scary experience! Glad you escaped unscathed.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Having grown up in Iowa, I am all too familiar with tornados. Nasty little fellows, have been pretty scared a number of times. No still photo could capture the full impact of being there. The sound, wind, smell even can be pretty impressive. When you hear the freight train coming, you better be under cover. Glad everybody was OK! What a way to start out the warbler chase.

Randy

[Ilija Dukovski]

I like what you did with the color. The brown Gull got a "snowy" feel.
The sand is unreal and white but creates a great hi-key almost B&W
image from an "ordinary" subject. I must admit I wouldn't dare to do
something like this. Now I might :)

Very interesting story BTW. You witnessed the creation of a hail storm,
very cool.

[Nate Chappell]

Sounds like fun, I like your comp here Artie.

[Mark Dumbleton]

Superb image here Artie. Love the composition and head-angle. Great moment!

[Ramon M. Casares]

I like the natural moment a lot Artie, comp is good and detail and sharpness are fantastic! Soft light is very pleasing as well as BG, I think a bit more SAT could be good and I would try brightening the eye a bit, very personally I would've tryed getting even lower, I always do it when the birds are on the ground except when the BG is not going to be good. Congratulations!