Bonaparte's on a flat

[Shawn Zierman]

Bonaparte's gulls in breeding plumage photographed on a mud flat in Northern Minnesota during a previous spring migration. I'm fairly wet and cold at this point :) SonyA300, Sigma50/500, iso200, f9, 1/1000, cropped top and bottom, full frame side to side, selective USM to the subjects. Comments and critiques welcome.
Regards,
Shawn Zierman.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Shawn, lots of different poses to look at, and I especially like the central gull leaning over as if he was trying to listen to his mate. Its always difficult where to 'cut' the ends of these images, as you are always going to 'cut' something off. Lovely OOF trees in the upper BG, and although the water is nice and smooth showing the colourful reflection, I would come up from the bottom at least half, putting the line of gulls in the lower ROT's.

[John Robinson]

Hi Shawn- as you probably know I don't normally like reflections but these are great- and the lovely smooth foreground too. Like the bird in the middle with his head up !
JR

[Arthur Morris]

Love the birds and the concept. As Stu says, the edges in images like this are the problem. For me, the big problems are on our left.... While I like the reflections and I like the trees I would suggest cropping half off either the top or the bottom--the 50-50 does not work well for me here. Then I'd crop in the natural gap on our left just to the right of the raised wing....

[Grace Scalzo]

Artie's suggestions would take this way up. I really like the painterly feel to the top, so I personally would trim from the bottom as it has less interest. The gulls have such interesting poses that the eye can linger for a good while on this image.

[dankearl]

I really like shots like this.
as Arthur suggests you can come in from the left and also a bit on the right and have almost no bird cut offs.
Some off the bottom, a bit of NR above and you have a knock out pano.

I would love to see a repost...

[David Salem]

Nice work Shawn. I like these Gulls allot but dont get to see the adults where I live. They are so regal with their black caps. I like the shot, and would try some of the suggestions, but its fine for me as is. I like the FG and the BG.

[gail bisson]

Hi Shawn,
I am late to the party and have not looked at the preceding critiques so forgive me if I repeat stuff!
I would crop quite a bit from the bottom and come in from the left to just past the gull with the raised wing.
I think a pano with the line of birds on the lower third of the image would make this image stronger.
I like the different poses of the birds along the shore and the eye can sweep back and forth looking at the different poses.
nice to see something different,
Gail

[christopher galeski]

nice one,like the FG and BG,I agree with suggestions on cropping,TFS.

[Satish Ranadive]

Shawn,
Every thing has been said about this magnificent image with beautiful IQ.
If mine, would rotate it CW a bit.

Regards,
Satish.

[Shawn Zierman]

Thanks for the feedback. Here's a go at a repost.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Shawn, I feel your repost has turned out nicely. Well done.

[Arthur Morris]

Repost is much stronger compositionally but a magenta cast was somehow introduced :) artie