Ring-billed Gull in fresh plumage.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Holy cow, this must have been the whitest Ring-billed Gull I've seen in ages. It could also be that it was very cooperative and I could study it closer and longer than usual, and really appreciate the beauty in these very common park birds:cool:. I was lying flat on the ground to line it up with the nice blues of the water behind it.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/7.1, ISO 640, +0.7 EC, natural light, handheld, full-frame.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

That is one clean gull! Did you give him a bath before the photo?

Sharp, great whites, perfect head position,nice background, good angle of inclination. The eye ring, eye itself, and small red area at base of bill, all nice.

The light was just off to your left, which helps give a little depth to the bird, which because it is so white, might have seemed a bit flat with sun right over your head.

A beauty.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Tony Whitehead]

Good job, Dan. Amazing textures and colours - I especially like the eye and bill details.

[Stu Bowie]

Pin, pin sharp Daniel. Excellent exposure on the whites, and great eye level too. Congrats.

[Steve Large]

Hi Daniel,
Lovely detail and exposure and nice even lighting for natural. You must tell me your secret for shap pictures on the 100-400L some day. Mine hasn't been out of the bag since I got my 500 F/4. Never got the great results like I see from yours.

Steve

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Stunning portrait Daniel!
Lovely white feathers, details on eye and bill are great. That blue bg helps a lot to bring out the bird.

[DanWalters]

Great portrait! I really like the eye. Nice details in the whites as well.

[Bruce Enns]

Great portrait Daniel, I really like the eye and bill details. I also like the details in the perfectly exposed tiny white feathers at the base of the bill.

Cheers!
Bruce

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Daniel,
Lovely detail and exposure and nice even lighting for natural. You must tell me your secret for shap pictures on the 100-400L some day. Mine hasn't been out of the bag since I got my 500 F/4. Never got the great results like I see from yours.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I've always had success with this lens, and always handhold it too, no special secret:). I also tried two other ones (from friends) before this one and also had similar great results. This is why I scratch my head (and smile) when I see reviewers diss this lens for apparant "softness" issues. Perhaps you have one of those infamous "soft" copies that seem to creep up from time to time?

[Mark Fuge]

Great shot.

As note, you could probably make a lot of money cleaning all the gulls in Canada for the photogs. I see a lot of them down here, but not with snow white feathers!

Great Lens, obviously.

Mark

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Wonderful portrait Daniel. Nothing to fault. Man, it's sharp and exposure is perfect. Thanks for sharing. :)

[Stephen Stephen]

Just a great capture Dan. I've got one with some good evening light that I created the other night but it can't compare to his one.