Low "an-gull" Landing...

[Daniel Cadieux]

First off, sorry for the bad pun......

While laying on the ground down low photographing some ducks I noticed from the corner of my eye this gull heading straight towards me in a downward gliding fashion...that could only mean it was going to land in the water. From this very low vantage point I twisted around to point my lens to it, and low and behold I was able to quickly frame it properly, lock focus, and get a great series of low angle landing images...including water splash down! Here it is a fraction of a second before touching the water :-)

Canon 7D + 100-400L @390mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/2000s., f/6.3, ISO 800, +1 EC, natural light, handheld, 2 degrees CCW rotation then cropped of corners (otherwise FF), opened up shadows with dodge tool, heavy blue cast on the wings toned down (sponge tool and selective colour).

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the pose, the setting and the overall composition. Exposure spot on, the fact there are shadows in the plumage does not bother me a bit. Great detail, all round excellent shot.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

The timing, low angle, exposure, all great.

Visually, the dark tree does detract, as it is fairly high contrast against the light sky.


Quick reactions!

Cheers

Randy

[Sachin Saraf]

Nice low angle, open wings and feet about to touch the water....I agree about tree being bit distracting.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Love the wing position and the DOF. Lovely attractive colors all around. Exp looks perfect and the sharpness is good. I still feel it needs another degree CCW rotation and if possible to remove the OOF trees in the ULC. very nice Daniel

[ramesh anantharaman]

What a brilliant image this is. The low angle is all magic. The tree doe not bother me so much. it is beautiful as is.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Its all about the low angle here. well done. not easy to change targets when in that position. excelent exposure and composition. love that blue color.

[Dan Behm]

Sweet image all around, I find the colors all very pleasing and complimentary of one another, exposure and low angle are excellent as are the outstretched wings. I am not bothered by the OOF trees in the background in fact feel it adds Interest.

Dan

[Marc Mol]

Love the wing position/landing pose with a nice low angle, tree and horizon line intersect the only (very small) nit.
Nicely done Daniel.
TFS