young Herring Gull in flight

[John Chardine]

I'm in St. Andrews, Scotland for 10 days and have taken advantage of the seabirds that are found along the coastline here.

This is an immature Herring Gull cruising along the cliffs right in the town. I liked the look of the bird against the BG and was pleased that I did not over-flash the subject. I clipped the bird's left wing so rather than throw out, attempted to salvage the day by cropping the right wing in post-processing. Let me know if this works or not!

40D 70-200mm, 1.4x tcII; FL = 280mm.
capture date: Tuesday, 19 August, 2008 102 am
exposure program: Manual, + 1.66 stops off (very!) grey sky
ISO speed: 640
shutter speed: 1/2000
aperture: f5.6
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: ON, Beamer, manual, full, high speed synch

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the details, eye contact and BG. It could go a bit brighter and I'm undecided about the clipped wings.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Lovely detail John and and a very pleasing BG. I would like to see it just a tad lighter and I am ok with the clipped wing in this image. Wonderful timing as you were able to capture it before it got too close and beautiful eye contact.

[Leroy Laverman]

I agree that lighter would be good. I think you could crop even further on the right side (about halfway between the edge and the start of the tail) to put the head more off center. The BG compliments the gray bird nicely.

[Ed Cordes]

I think it is a good image with a lot of great detail. I too am not sure about the clipped wing.