When Pacific Gulls attack!

[Paul Randall]

Taken late this afternoon at Altona beach just west of Melbourne. Light was still pretty harsh but managed a few shots of this gull protecting its meal of a beach washed fish from anybody who got too close.
Quite a sight, I'm told they have the most powerful beak of all the gull family.

Thanks for looking, all comments welcome.

Canon 5D 400mm f5.6 L iso 200 1/4000 f7.1, CW metering -2/3, handheld

[Harshad Barve]

Super aggression by Gul here and very well captured , Busy FG & BG adds to scene here
TFS

[Paul Randall]

Thank you. The fish can be seen in the bottom right corner.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is excellent work Paul. Nice and tightly cropped, perfectly posed aggression. Congrats mate!

[Rob Drummond]

Great capture Paul - there is a real sense of action and aggression. Do you have the foot? - another tiny bit on the bottom would have been perfect.

cheers
Rob

[Kiran Poonacha]

loved the moment frozen, nice details and light, the OOF birds add well IMO, congrats..

[arash_hazeghi]

This image has a very natural feel to it and interaction adds a lot, almost like a street fight!

[Rod Warnock]

Superb capture, Paul !! Is there more canvas south ? Would lift this excellent iamge even further if there is more canvas.
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[Paul Randall]

Unfortunately I was using the central focusing sensor and lost the foot in the process.
Let this be a lesson to never get too close when action is involved.

[Rod Warnock]

Know what you mean, Paul !! I have a bad carry over from the 1960-1970s when one would try and use all the frame and even now it is hard to break with tail tips and/or wing tips being cut by the image frame. I always come away from such a session feeling that I have just bought a kangaroo that wouldn't hop:) !!

Best regards
Rod

[Paul Randall]

Absolutely Rod. I try never to let the technology dictate my composition but thats hard when you rely on the central sensor as much as I do. I changed to the top focus point after this shot but never got another chance unfortunately.