Lesser Black Back Gull Stretch

[Jim Fenton]

This is a subject I've been wanting to create images of for a long time as they are fairly rare in my neck of the woods.

Yesterday afternoon, while sitting on my butt waiting for the tide to recede and the shorebirds to come out of their dune roosts to feed (never happened because they had flown out with the wind the night before), this full adult made my day and landed nearby, spending two hours alternately preening and sleeping.

Image captured at Plymouth Long beach in Plymouth MA.

Nikon D300s, 500 AFSII, ISO 500, f 6.3, 1/800, NearUniWB, CW Metering, +1.0 EV

My guess is that some will diisagree with the crop, but with the extended wing position, I wasn't happy with a more traditional rectangular crop.

[arash_hazeghi]

Awesome sharpness, eye contact and great pose too! Sweet hot.

[denise ippolito]

Nice HA and pose. I think the crop looks fine. Details look great!

[Tony Whitehead]

Crop and action looks good to me. Eye looks a little oversharpened on my monitor. Pity about the moulted primary.

[Jim Fenton]

Interesing comment about the eye as I did no selective sharpening to it.

As far as the molted primary goes, I suppose it's to be expected this time of year and honestly....I'd much rather have it missing a primary than to not have it at all as I've been looking for this bird species for 2 years now :)

[Dan Brown]

Sweet find Jim! Techs are very nice! Your composition is fitting. I really like that eye!

[Brian Barcelos]

Good catch here. I've yet to see one of these myself. Exposure looks great and sharpness spot on. Love the low tide BG also and comp works for me.
I'll be at Daniel Webster WS most of the day tomorrow and might just make my first trip to Long Beach, Inspired by your great images.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Perfect crop for this subject, IMO.

Randy

[Harshad Barve]

Fabulous image with compo , expo and sharpness spot on
TFS

[Mike Milicia]

Congrats on a wonderful capture of a great subject!

I think you made a good choice to go with more of a pano crop but I think I might like to see a bit more room at the bottom and on the left if you have it.