Bonaparte Gull

[Ed Vatza]

We're not big on Gulls - most of them all look alike to me. But the Bonaparte Gull looks like a dove/gull hybrid to me. We found this guy yesterday laying in a depression in the sand at Shark River Inlet in Belmar, NJ. I took a series of backlit images before moving to the other side and going with the front lighting. He just posed the entire time.

Canon 50D; 300 2.8 w/2x TC; Tripod

1/200 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 100; -1/3 EV; Sunny WB; FL 600mm (Effective FL 960mm)

[Judd Patterson]

I like your dove/gull description...they do have a softer appearance than many gull species. This is a very beautiful image with the great blurred foreground and background to isolate the bird. I think you might have been in just a little tight on this bird and a little more room (especially on the front) wouldn't hurt. It's great that you were able to stack up so much glass and still get away with 1/200 @ ISO 100, but personally I would have gone up to ISO 200 or probably 400 to give myself a little more shutter speed. ISO 100 just won't give you that much more on a camera like the 50D and you run the risk of fewer keepers.

[Doug Brown]

I didn't even know you could set a 50D's ISO below 400! ;) Good advice by Judd on pushing your ISO higher when doing bird photography. I would remove the dark twigs poking at the bird's breast and also the dark horizontal line at the top of the OOF sand in front of the bird.

[thomasryan]

Lovely Image Ed. I like the angle of view and the detail on this ungull like gull. Nice Work!
I got my first look at one of these beauties a few weeks ago. A small group were flying around a few thousand Sandhill Cranes and at first glance, I thought were white doves...tom

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely soft light and bird. The single biggest problem is the need for more room in front of the bird.