We don't see many Heerman's gulls in the Seattle area, so I was thrilled to get close enough for this image on a beautiful morning at Shilshole Bay. A beautiful day in November is more of a rarity than the gull.... C/C welcome and appreciated.
Hi George,
This is a nice image of the bird. The eye and beak is sharp. Few issues I have is if you tried cropping slightly from the left to bring the bird's eye at the upper-third of the image. the feathers at the back are not sharp. Since you had a clean BG, might have tried few stops down to increase DOF. A catchlight from a flash would have put more life and interest in the image. Some humble comments. Experts may have better suggestions.
Cheers
Hi George! Very nice image. You did a great job getting close to your subject, and you captured him in some night light. I'm not so concerned with the feathers at the back of the head as I am with the tip of his beak. I'd like to see that in sharp focus. As Axel, and Gautam mentioned, more DOF would enable you to do that. Fill flash would nice to add some catchlight, and get rid of some shadows at the back of the head. Keep 'em coming!
I think the key with portraits is to get parallel with the subject. In this case I think a bit more perpendicular to the birds head would work better. As is I'd crop off some from the top and right.