An Opportunist Looms Large.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is the same female Hooded Merganser that I posted a few days ago, but here she is being followed by a hungry young Ring-billed Gull that is waiting to snatch her catches. This gull followed her for most of the time, rarely getting her out of its sight. Anytime the merganser dove, the gull got agitated with anticipation of the re-surfacing.

I suppose that artistically having a large oof gull is quite distracting and for that reason this image would likely not hang on my wall, but I like the natural history and story-telling its inclusion adds :-) We also get a sense of smallish size of the merganser with the larger gull looming large...

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, about 75% FF, bluish cast negated via Color Balance, NR everywhere except main subject.

[John Robinson]

Hi Daniel.
Somehow I prefer this to the other one. Certainly tells more of a story- for me anyway as I tend to be more interested in Natural History than photography !
Nice one.
Cheers
JR

[Sandy Witvoet]

Perfect. I've been watching the RBG's doing this all Fall... great capture. Glad you included the story behind it.

[Jamie Douglas]

I do like this Daniel. Great detail and the looming RBG certainly adds it's presence to the image.

[Enrique Patino]

To me it works because of the quality of the image and because the direction of the head and bill connects the gull with the main subject (engages it with the subject). Certainly a good addition for the collection... TFS

enrique

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Daniel,

This one sure has the story-telling feel to it! I wouldn't say that I prefer one to the other, as they are different (and great). The separation between the two is a big plus here.

Miguel

[Grace Scalzo]

Agree, Daniel, that it's likely not a wall hanger, but has a place in your portfolio. Really quite interesting. I've seen male mergies take the catch from a female, but never gulls.

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome image Dan. Love the story being told. Not easy to capture the concept as well as you have with head angles and subject spacing, etc. The only thing that could make this better is if the hoodie had a prey item.

[Faraaz Abdool]

Lovely shot Dan. Great job composing this with the large OOF gull, perfect spacing between the two birds. Agree with others before me in that it shows the scale of the sizes of the two birds. Also I must include - great job exposing the dark subject properly whilst still protecting the whites of the RBG!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, your usual low angle, and couldnt ask for a better pose. Great detail on the merganser, and just love the colour of the water, reflected from the BG. Of course the merganser on her own would have been a real winner, but Im fine with the inclusion of the gull, due to the nature ( pun not intended ) of the story.

[keith mitchell]

Hi Daniel, I see what you are getting at but must say I prefer your first post of this don't want any distraction from that cracking looking bird, good job that we all see things differently.

Keith.

[nick clayton]

When I first looked at the image before reading the caption I though it would be better without the gull. After reading the caption I can see the natural history interest, it's interesting to see that a few words can make the difference to how an image is perceived.

[Holger Leyrer]

Lovely shot. I like the BG with the gull.

[Greg Oakley]

This is great Daniel - I actually love the gull in the BG - really tells a story well

[adrian dancy]

Excellent work. The OOF gull makes for interesting behaviour image demonstrating interaction between two species. Well worth having in your portfolio.

[Marina Scarr]

Love the back story to this one and it definitely has a place in your portfolio. I just love images that tell a story or show more of the environment. Colors and light here are divine.