Herring Gull

[Pol]

A Herring Gull swooping over to land beside an island lake.

Pol

[StuartR]

Re: Herring Gull

Super shot Pol - it would be interesting to know what kit you used.

I know it's not on the critique forum but I wonder if it would benefit from just a little more sky on the left for the bird to "fly into" if you know what I mean?

[Ian]

Re: Herring Gull

Nice one Pol. the head looks pin sharp. Rather intensive expression though!

Did you take this recently? Are you back fighting fit now?!

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Herring Gull

Super shot Pol - it would be interesting to know what kit you used.

I know it's not on the critique forum but I wonder if it would benefit from just a little more sky on the left for the bird to "fly into" if you know what I mean?

Thanks for your comments, Stuart.

I have to agree it would be better to have just a touch more sky/space in front of the gull. It was just one of those 'grab' shots I snatched as it swooped down and I was concentrating hard on getting it into the frame, keeping it in focus and hoping to fill the frame without clipping its wings.

I was using the Pentax K10D + Tamron 28-300 3.5 - 6.3 UltraZoom XR at the time and what you see is the full frame, shot at 210mm. They swoop kinda fast so it was pure luck I managed to get it all in the frame rather than anything else.

I have a 'pet' seagull that lives on the lake. He's a Black headed Gull nicknamed "Gilbert" and I'd been feeding Gilbert when the Herring Gull decided to try to grab a few scraps too. Gilbert wasn't sharing - so my husband took pity on the Herring Gull and threw it a few scraps.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Herring Gull

Nice one Pol. the head looks pin sharp. Rather intensive expression though!

Did you take this recently? Are you back fighting fit now?!

Ian

Shot that one yesterday.

I'm not exactly 'fighting fit' yet - but at least I was able to manipulate the camera without dropping anything. I took the above shot from the inside step of the campervan, haven't risked clambering out and about with kit as yet.

Arm/hand much better - just not quite up to strength yet for managing the longer/heavier lens ..... and my walking isn't strong enough or steady enough for the strong winds we had yesterday. However - I plod (or crawl) on and try not to fall outa the 'van and/or break/strain/damage any other part of my anatomy.

Pol

[Tinka]

Re: Herring Gull

Hi Pol,
A terrific image of a beautiful creature, so sharp and clear, glad to hear you are makeing progress, I did not realise you had been poorely, I did wonder why you had not been so active, look forward to seeing back in full action soon.
Best wishes
Dave

[Stephen]

Re: Herring Gull

Stonkin image Pol, with just slight movement in the wing tips, which shows it really is flying. Without that it could almost be a cut and paste job The bird is really well exposed though, did you use spot metering

[Pol]

Re: Herring Gull

Stonkin image Pol, with just slight movement in the wing tips, which shows it really is flying. Without that it could almost be a cut and paste job The bird is really well exposed though, did you use spot metering

Thanks.

That particular shot was the last one from the session and the only one of the series that was shot on centre weighted average. All the others, of Gilbert and a couple of that Herring Gull, had been shot using spot metering.

We'd been preparing to leave when the Herring Gull decided to do one more circuit to see if Gilbert had left any scraps. I decided to have one more try following it and zooming, had turned off the spot metering after Gilbert left and just got lucky really.

The bird was very close, maybe 15-20 ft away (land distance) and not very high as it was swooping along the verges and I was using continuous focusing and hoping I wouldn't clip the wings ... so it truly was a lucky shot.

However - I still haven't achieved my ambition of capturing a corner-to- corner full frame of a Herring Gull from directly beneath. Remember that amazing shot 'Jeff/Geoff' (from Clevedon) once posted? I forgot his surname but his is the sort of shot I dream of.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Herring Gull

Hi Pol,
A terrific image of a beautiful creature, so sharp and clear, glad to hear you are makeing progress, I did not realise you had been poorely, I did wonder why you had not been so active, look forward to seeing back in full action soon.
Best wishes
Dave

I'd damaged the Ulnar nerve of my left arm. The end result was a very numb arm and hand and the concern was that I might have a trapped nerve. However, it transpired the nerve was just temporarily pinched. Some exercises have done the trick and I can now use my hand again and finer motor movement in my fingers is getting back to normal, thank goodness!

Pol