Seagull coming in to land

[dwaugh]

This is a random shot that I took in the winter when I was testing my then new 70-300mm lens. I forgot about it for a while and I know that some people like it. How do you like it? I like to do shots like this since they are not always easy. Some of you may say it is too blue.. I had the wrong white balance on, and it was taken in the snow over water, but I think it turned out alright. Let me know how you like it. Remember, this was just a random lucky shot at 300mm. I forget what the shutter speed was - maybe 1/60.

[Frog]

Well that's not an,"oh no another seagull".
The only thing that bothers me is the dark lone of whatever it is across the top and I'm not expert enought to know if there's anything you can do with it.
Other than that its the nicest seagull shot I've seen.

[jkriminger]

I like it a lot...maybe adjust the levels on the bird alone..little lighter, some contrast?

[PrevailingConditions]

I like the sense of motion with the water and the wingtips. I was going to say to adjust the color, but I like the blue color as well. I'm guessing that with the color corrected you'd have the standard gray seagull. I would probably be inclined to fiddle with the levels to enhance the contrast, but that's just me.

Also, while the light areas at the top stand-out, without it you probably wouldn't have much context.

PC

[livin4lax09]

you did a great job getting the shot, especially if it was 1/60, but now you need to do some PP. the color is just wrong. a blue tint is ok, but this just looks like you shot under tungsten WB or something.

[swmdrayfan]

Amazing for 1/60. Agree with Brent on the color change.

[Seb]

I think that this is a beautiful capture. The way you have partly stopped the movement leads to a very strong effect. Contrast seems almost ok but you could afford to make it stronger (it calls for a very moderate change though) . I understand Brent point about the white balance but then again, the change required is very moderate. I don't think that the WB is literally off.

regards

Seb

[mn shutterbug]

Pretty good shot with that slow a shutter speed. Regarding the blue cast, if you changed it to gray, it would then look more like a summer time photo. The blue gives it the cold wintery feeling.

[jspot1980]

I really like the shot. I think the color in the background makes it seem more like it's on the water like it should. I don't think that you need to change the color at all. The contrast I agree might be able to go up just a tad, but other than that, I think you got a really great shot here.
Jason

[Greg McCary]

Great capture. I like the blue tint myself. I agree it gives it a wintery feel. Well done.

[dwaugh]

I'm looking at the shot again. It was taken at 240mm at 1/50. I never really worked on it before, so now that I am sure it is a good shot, I'll make it good. Here's the shot again, touched up a bit (more contrast, and cropped less than before). I think it looks better... is it too dark? If I brighten it a lot then I lose some of the color. Let me know how you like this version.