Still practicing on the gulls. This time, trying to see if I could hand-hold the 500+1.4X. (It's hard on my aging shoulders.) Trouble here was that the bird zoomed in so close in the strong wind that all I got of him was his head and torso, but I thought it made for an interesting, if unusual, comp. Slight crop. C&C appreciated.
D90 | 500f4 + 1.4X | ISO 640 | 1/4000s @ f/7.1 | -0.7 EV | HH
Bill, I LOVE this! I really feel like I'm right there with him and the angle and unusual comp doesn't bother me at all because everything is technically very strong. I really like that we can see the red around his eye and on the corner of his mouth and your whites are stunning. Only suggestion I can come up with would be to play with the top wing where the blue shadow is and see if you can't lighten in and/or take down the blue cast a bit and get it more towards a neutral gray.
Really interesting perspective - whether it was a mistake or not you had the good sense to recognize it as a keeper.
Now that I look at it you might take a bit off the bottom of the frame so it doesn't look like an accident so much as a super tight crop.
Really good job with the focusing while hand-holding 500+1.4x, need skill to find the bird in the view finder and able to take a good focus shot like this. Haven't seen many close up show of BIF but I do like this composition, very well done. Agree about cropping more off the bottom.
I think the composition is great, it really evokes speed and elegance of an animal that belongs in the air. Incredible hand held job. I like the combination of tight top and left with space on bottom and right.
Oh, Bill, what an absolutely delightful image. You have captured such wonderful detail, the head angle is perfect, there is such wonderful motion. Nicely done! :-)
Ring-billed Gull: In-flight portrait
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