as you may have noticed - Gulls are my favorite

[amir ben dov]

this bird is an Armenian Gull
birds do not breed in Israel, but seen year round
this is a young bird born this spring and its very worn feathers gives it its white look

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
24/08/2010 – 09:487
f/7.1
ISO Speed; 200
Focal Length; 500.0 mm

[Dave Blinder]

Nice lighting exposure and head angle Amir. If possible, I'd like to see a lower shooting angle on this... camera just above the water to minimize foreground and background.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

agree with Dave. This will look very good at lower angle....if the resultant BG does not have any distracting elements. This angle is good for clear reflections. Bird angle, exposure, composition and sharpness all look very good.

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Amir,

An interesting pose. Your exposure and details on the bird look pretty good. My suggestion would be to increase the saturation and or vibrance some. Also perhaps a small increase in contrast . Thanks for sharing.

[Arthur Morris]

All good stuff above with lots more to add :) From the perspective that you chose, I would cover the brown strip at the top with blue water as the edges are too raggedy for me. (That from the guy who loves strips of color as borders :). I do like the drinking pose. If you have a standard portrait I could you post it in this thread please? The out of place tertials (???) are unfortunate and mildly distracting. And though I love the soft look to the feathers a small increase in contrast and a bit more sharpening of the bird would likely improve it. All in all, well done.

Best advice: get on the ground!

[amir ben dov]

Hi

thanks alot for the very detailed and worthy remarks
i am adding first an ammended photo accordind to your advise
it does look better, though a bit too bright to me (as we lost the brown contrast at the top)

thanks

[amir ben dov]

to your request i am adding also a standing pose
but i must say it has its problems to my taste

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Amir, The repost looks a lot better to me, and not too bright. And thanks for the view of the bird's bill. (The big problem there is with the head angle.)