Heermann's Gull Yawn

[Aidan Briggs]

Caught this Heerman's Gull yawning on the beach last week. The light would have been really harsh if it weren't for some nice clouds.

Pretty much full frame.

50D, 100-400 at 365mm
1/800 sec, f/9, ISO 400

[Doug Brown]

Excellent pose, details, and light. Perfect head angle. Nice choice of aperture.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Aidan, I like the call pose with the wide open beak, and I like how we can see the tongue. Excellent sharp detail, and I like the softer colour of the BG too.

[Hendri Venter]

Very good close-up with excellent detail. Open beak very nice as mentioned.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Aidan, I love the low angle and the details are lovely :)
Best,
Nicki

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose with open bill, nice details and EXP too

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool capture, I like the open bill and eye contact. Normally I would wish for a less steep angle but it works here, makes the gull look really majestic. :)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Really nice, Aidan! Good job on the techs. I especially like the details inside the mouth (GREAT view of the serrations!!). All I would do is eliminate the dark blotch touching the breast at bottom edge.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Very nice, agree with Axel, the angle works very well here. I like the eye, I can see the beach and the sky...

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks for the comments and advice everybody. I appreciate it.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Like this a lot. Excellent exposure and wonderful action captured with Superb detail and a lovely Bg. Fine work !

[Gal Shon]

Nicely done. colors, exposure and eye contact are very good.
I find the angle a little bit steep.

[Arthur Morris]

I love this species. You did well in the relatively harsh light. I might cool down the reds and the contrast just a bit. I am with Gal--I would have liked you at the bird's eye level. What was the bird sitting one?

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks everybody. Artie, I was laying flat on the sand while the bird was sitting. However I made this image when the bird stood up and yawned. I didn't have time to get any higher, I was just lucky to catch the yawn :).

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Aidan. Been there, done that....