Gull chasing an egret

[Connie Mier]

Shot this in Jan 2009 on Florida Bay, off Flamingo. Background was busy with manmade structures and white birds littered the water behind the flying birds. I was finally able to clean up the background with some PS skills acquired over the months. It was an interesting scene to capture, snowys were in great number in the flats fishing, and the laughing gulls were dive bombing the egrets as soon as they captured a fish. This egret was attempting to flee the bully gull. It was very cool to watch from the canoe. This was the only decent photo I captured and I didn't want to delete it because of the background.

Sony a700, Minolta 300mm, 1.4xTC
f5.6, 1/3200, ISO200, manual metering, evaluative
Thanks for looking
Connie

[Doug Brown]

Sounds like a lot of PS work; you did well for the most part. Love the topside bank pose of the gull in particular; the Egret is pointed away from us and isn't quite as sharp. I think you have room to brighten the birds a little, and I would run some additional sharpening, paying special attention to the Egret's head. I would also move the birds to the right of the frame. From a camera settings standpoint I would have stopped down for two birds; you don't need 1/3200 to freeze a Gull or an Egret, and the extra DOF would have paid dividends. Not sure how your Sony handles ISO 400, but I almost never shoot action at ISO 200. It gives you the freedom to adjust your aperture and shutter speed a bit more liberally.

[Connie Mier]

Thanks Doug, excellent feedback. I shot that awhile back and now, I rarely, if ever shoot below ISO400. Sony does well at 400-800, but it took some time to convince myself of that. If I had the same situation to photograph today, I definitely would have done it differently. :)
Connie

[Joe Senzatimore]

Doug has offered very good points , so I will only say that this image is worth all the work put into it as it is a wonderful action/behavioral capture. A few more tweeks and it could be even better than it already is.;)

[denise ippolito]

Connie, Excellent action captured and good suggestions already given. I like the fanned tail and topside view of the gull so much that I'd be happy with just that. The Egret adds nicely to the story. :)

[Bill Dix]

Hi Connie. Great shot, and good advice. Some dof certainly would have helped bring the egret into focus. The topside view and open bill of the gull make a terrific image themselves, with the egret and interaction a bonus. On my monitor it doesn't look like the egret could be brightened, but I'm not sure of my calibration.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Hi Connie
Nice Interaction & capture. I also like the gull's attacking pose.