Midwest Birding Symposium #1

[Arthur Morris]

I spoke and taught at the Midwest Birding Symposium last weekend. There were some great speakers and programs and I sold ever copy of ABP and ABP II that I brought along with a few fine art 16 X 24" canvas prints. There was not much around to photograph at Lakeside, OH but I did have some good chances with a few gulls. I created this image of a winter adult Bonaparte's Gull after taking my boots off and walking out into a rather chilly Lake Erie (to attain a decent sun angle).

Canon 800mm f/5.6 L with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/9.

Don't be shy; all comments are welcome.

[Brian Barcelos]

Beautifully warm light and I love the ripples in the water. Bird is nicely exposed and pin sharp. The light playing off the wavelets in the BG make this a very pleasing image Artie. When I went out this past weekend I too only found gulls around (mostly Laughing). Most people overlook gulls but I find that with so many around your chances of catching some cool behaviors are greatly increased plus I've always loved gulls since I was a kid. Congrats.

Brian

[Ramon M. Casares]

Great light, lovely species, great exppsure, comp and detail, I wonder if it was possible to get lower to imprve BG as a more blurred one would've been even better, I know that with such a long lens there's no need to get really water-level-low, and it actually looks very nice as it is, but a bit lower IMO it would have been better. Also I would suggest to crop from the bottom almost up to where the relfection starts.
Congratulaitons. Very nice shot, getting wet and cold did paid off :)

[Harshad Barve]

lovely compo , sharpness, lighting and cool bird , I liked it as posted
TFS

[Dave Leroy]

Nicely done. I like the nice soft colours in the water, adds a warm feeling to the whites of the bird. I like the idea of a crop from bottom as well. Dave

[Stu Bowie]

Good exposure control on the Gull Artie, and nice and sharp too. I like the bronze colours in the water, and cropping a bit off the bottom will work. Well captured.

[Arthur Morris]

Ramon, Getting any lower would have brought the (ugly) shoreline into the top of the image.... And I was not about to get any wetter anyway.

[John Chardine]

Nice warm tones Artie and I love the gold and blue in the water. My initial thought was that the bird's face neck looked quite bright on my monitor but I think this just the way it was.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Ramon, Getting any lower would have brought the (ugly) shoreline into the top of the image.... And I was not about to get any wetter anyway.

I understand, thank for the answer :)

[Hendri Venter]

I also like the shiny bronze water colour. Whites welll exposed to show good detail. Lovely image Artie.

[Ilija Dukovski]

The water is just fantastic, love the bird too. Getting wet and cold is the way to go in September.:)

[Morkel Erasmus]

hey Art-man!
thanks for explaining your reasons for not going lower, as that is what I was about to ask. love the golden hues on the water and the light on the gull. I can feel the motion of the water by looking at the in-focus part.

[Nagesh Mula]

Hi Artie, I liked the golden ripples here (It makes the pic stand here) and relatively soft light.