Herring Gull Wingstretch Lesson

[Arthur Morris]

This Herring Gull image was made on March 8 at Fort Desoto on the Fort Desoto/Hooptie Deux Short Notice IPT with the hand held Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Lens, the Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 400: 1/2000 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode was a slight underexposure. Rig supported by my left knee-pod. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF on the bird’s eye and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image for a larger version.

You can learn how I screwed up when creating this image here.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great shot, I like the low angle, any lower and the feet would not be so clearly visible. I like the wing tip gently dusting the sand.
On a shot like this I would have used the central sensor, then pressed the AF button with my thumb to stop or lock focus, recomposed and fired. I have tried rear AF repeatedly, it is very widely used so I thought I was missing out, in fact I got to like it but I just find it more intuitive to "stop" focus with my thumb as opposed to "start" focus which can be done simultaneously with the shutter button.

[David Salem]

Nice stretching pose with the lifted leg. Exposure, detail and HA look great. The water color is also very appealing. Nice work.

[Arthur Morris]

Jon, Different strokes for different folks. Had I used stop focus in this situation I still would have had the same problem that I outlined on the blog: operator error. And if you are hand holding, with is a bad idea.... See the blog link for why.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice stretching pose caputred at low angle. Great lighting and exposure.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Artie, love the light and exposure, together with the curve of the wing. The colour of the gull pops so well from the sea BG.

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent Pose and light, good exposure control, nice comp and good ambient.