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Seagull Photo @ Newport Beach
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Digital Photography
Composition #15 - 15 July 2009 |
I've graduated from domesticated chicken photos to the wildness of fat seagulls on the beach. I've got a heron waiting in the wings, which is a true step in the right direction for wild bird photography, but am still a ways away from good captures of small birds ... Keep posted, though, I'll get there.
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But, I like this guy. He was about 8 feet (~2.5 meters) above the ground, and he (she?) let me approach to about the same distance before flying away. But, that was close enough for my 200mm (35mm-equivalent) lens to capture a compelling seagull photo.
Photo Critique
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The blues make this image. I can't remember if I had a polarizing filter with me to help with the sky or not (I should learn to write these things down, but I am spoiled by having EXIF data for everything else important). I do know that the blues in the sky needed a bit of cranking up when I cleaned the image up in ACDSee. That worked out well, and the sky now approaches the blue of my ImproveYourDP page header - what a bonus! The other thing that works well is the seagull looking over his shoulder. And it helps to have ample space above his head and in the direction he is looking so that he doesn't appear boxed in. Compare that to the compact mirror photograph that is too tightly cropped at the top. Yes, I know it is a completely different type of subject, but the need for space is clear in both. Coincidentally, the alignment of the eye with the right rule-of-thirds line helps assure adequate breathing room for the subject.
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The neck and face feathers are burned out. Had I shot the image in raw format and/or used a bit of exposure compensation, as with this other seagull photo, I would have had enough image information to pull out some detail and add more interest to that part of the image. |
