Great Black-backed Gull.

Back from a fun family vacation in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton island, and of course I managed a few photos other than those of the kids having fun :-) This Great Black-backed Gull was riding the waves and keeping its wings up for balance as it reached the apex of those waves. We only see a few individuals locally, and only during the winter months...plus they are not approachable, so it was a treat to see many of them from close enough for redeeming photographs.

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/800s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped for composition.

Lovely image, Daniel, and glad to hear you managed a little bird photography on the family vaca. The wings up and wave are a huge plus and exposure is spot on.

Love how you got the whites right!
Nice wing position and with good eye contact. Nice to hear that you had a great vacation with your family.

Excellent image, Daniel Sir. Very nice pose with full up wings, nice HA, beautiful colors and composition.
Love the way Gull is floating on the wave.

Regards,
Satish.

beautiful image. lots of detail. worked well with soft light

Nice wing position, spot on exposure and nice water, Daniel.
A place I would like to visit one day.

A beauty Daniel, thank you for sharing. I like how you captured the gull riding the top crest of the wave.

Bird looks good Daniel has does the water, under wing exposure is excellent.


Keith.

Best Gull image I've ever seen.... excellent, Daniel.

Gorgeous! The breeding plumage looks awesome. Pose could not be better. Frankly, the image could only be improved if the water was slightly more transparent and we could see those big feet in the water! Nothing you could do there I suppose :) When I first saw the thumbnail, I made a quick assumption that the background was ice or icy chunks floating...there is such a tonal difference between the fg and bg water....Anyway, striking image sir.

very nice shot Dan, great exposure and details + a nice HA

All looks good to me Daniel. I once rescued one and had to carry it a long distance. These are huge!

Great wing position and nice composition
i love the whites in the exposure, nice image over all

An exceptionally good gull image. The pose is excellent and I love how the gull is surfing that wave. Your shooting position/angle couldn't have been any better. Framed and composed perfectly. Masterfully executed image imo.