During all my life I have lived, and still do, in the inland and when I visit the seashores I feel an enormous fascination by the birds inhabiting the marine areas. Gulls are one of my favorite seabirds group from an artistic point of view, mostly due to the combination of pure white in their plumages and the different hues of dark blue to grey of the sky in the seashore. A couple of weeks ago. I received a copy of "Birds" by sweddish wildlife artist Lars Jonsson, by far my favorite wildlife artist and, like each time I order one of his books, gulls are really prominent everywhere on his books. Lars feels a very intense attraction for gulls and he paints these birds with a lot of passion. He is able to paint and enormous variety of plumages and an amazing high diversity of facial expressions of gulls. Until I discovered the work of Larss I never realized about how much expresive gulls can be. Yes, they are really common species but they are just beautiful.
This portrait is from the past winter and the species, kittiwake, is by no means a common one in the shores of south Spain but last winter a lot of them, hundreds, arrived to the coast as a consequence of really bad wheather in the middle of Atlantic ocean, where they winter. I was using a 500VR of a friend and that day I felt in love with the lens. The amazing clarity and outstanding optical quality of this lens is just superb and when the light is good it can produces superb examples of detailed, almost macro like, portraits.
More gull´s images in my blog
As always, I would love to hear your comments and critics on my work :)
Beautiful detail on this gull Juan, with nailed exposure and very pleasing BG.
You will not want to give back the 500VR after this,
I know I didn't as I bought mine last year and have never looked back.;)
I agree with you about gulls, Juan! They also make perfect BIF practice :-) I like the image alot. Although the lightest patch just above your signature is not burnt I would still tone it down to match its' neighbouring areas. I love the BG colour, very nice!!
Lovely shot. The gull has been represented very well. Lovely bg to complement soft colours of gull. DOF works very well for such a close shot. Well done. Dave
In addition to the accolades above I would add that I love the eye skin color and the gray patch on the back of the head and the hind neck. I would suspect that this species nests on cliffs. Do you know the common name?
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Gull portrait (Rissa trydactila)
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