A few gulls..

[GoLotus]

Now, I don't really like gulls very much, but everywhere we went to in Scotland they seemed to be all around us, so it would have been rude not to turn the camera round towards them right?

What do you think of these shots?

1

2

3

4

5

6

 

[Dark Star]

All cracking shots but #3 and #5 really stand out for me. The isolation, colours and textures in #3 are great and the timing of #5 (plus that mean look on its face) make the shot for me

Excellent stuff

 

[mstphoto]

When you stop and look at gulls, they are actually beautiful birds.
I have found that they are quite difficult to shoot (with camera) as I sometimes tend to get blown highlights as you have in some of your images.

All-in-All a great set of images. I love the water in #5

 

[themightyjuice]

Love number 5, although I hate these bloody birds, for the past 2 weeks I've been getting followed and swooped upon just for walking down the street that had a nest close by.

 

[Rovers_Andy]

3 is the pick of the bunch for me, 5 would be a corker if it wasn't for the cropped reflection

 

[kirk09]

is it me or does No.5 look really mean lol, great shots

 

[crusher]

3 is the pick of the bunch for me, 5 would be a corker if it wasn't for the cropped reflection

Pretty much what I was going to say!!

 

[GoLotus]

not so much, cropped, as never there in the first place!

I thought that him sat there on the amazingly still water at Chanonry Point (yes, the really is the sea that still!) might just make a nice pic, but he picked the exact moment I pushed the shutter button to take off!!! Hey ho


Thanks for the comments again - so er.... about these white bits being blown, how would I stop that?

 

[ringyneck]

All great....can't nab one flying to save my life.

Love #6 best
Keith

 

[Rovers_Andy]

Hi GoLotus

The technique i used here...........http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=154056

Was to set the camera up shooting RAW. Manual mode AI Servo Continuous Shooting. Spot Metering.

I took a reading off one of the buildings on the seafront which was a pale colour ( a highlight but not a white. This bit is important. my understanding is that if i had metered off a pure white it would have blown the colours) Then i took a few test shots and checked the Histogram. If required you could use exposure compensation to keep the definition in the whites of the feathers without blowing the whites.

If you have a quick look though the set you will see that the background is quite dark whilst the birds are well exposed with decent definition of the feathers. I should point out these were taking in fairly flat light so i didn't need to use exposure comp.

If it had been bright sunshine then this would have been a different story and you would have needed to use exposure comp.

The final thing i should point out is that the shots were taken in an area where there were minimal reflections in the water and with the light coming from behind me.

If i've made any errors on the technical side i'm sure those who are more experienced will be along to correct me.

Hope this helps mate

Thanks

Andy

 

[GoLotus]

thanks Andy, will have a go at that next time around

 

[Laudrup]

2 and 5 are great.