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M. Joseph Tiemann
01-02-2008, 09:57 AM
Wednesday morning, January 2, 2008

Hello to all,

Just joined the group, and I am impressed with the variety and quality of the images.
I took the attached photo yesterday,January 1, 2008, near my home, of gulls in the sun. There is a lake, Lake Pontchartrain, about one half mile from the spot and the gulls are plentiful.

Canon XTi, lens Canon 70-200 2.8 IS, 1.4 converter, f8, 1/500, ISO 200, 280mm

I hope to contribute and to learn.

M. Joseph Tiemann

Lana Hays
01-02-2008, 12:03 PM
Welcome, Joseph
There's a lot going on in this image and the light certainly isn't the best. For this image, I might try cropping it into a pano to concentrate on all the gulls and remove some of the BG. You did capture some squabbling on the left that could have been an interesting behavioral shot if you had been able to get closer and focus on that. I'd definitely visit the gulls where they are plentiful as you can try out different angles, probably get closer, and have time to observe. The way to learn is to experiment with your camera....settings, subjects, and light.

Jim Neiger
01-02-2008, 02:04 PM
Hi Joseph,

Lana gave you some great advice. Here are a couple more suggestions for next time: Try to position yourself with the sun behind you and the subject in front of you so that your shadow points at the subject. Try to photograph during the early morning or late afternoon when the angle of the sun provides flatter, softer light. If possible try to get seperation between your subjects and the bg. this will throw the bg out of focus and it will be less distracting.

Alfred Forns
01-02-2008, 07:31 PM
Great suggestions !!! Might want to do some flight with the gulls They are cooperative and fun to shoot !!!!

M. Joseph Tiemann
01-02-2008, 09:45 PM
Thanks to all for the great tips. I reworked the image and was pleased with the results. I plan to follow through
next week-end with some more shots of these birds (when the traffic is not so bad as during the week).
Again, thanks so much...M. Joseph Tiemann