Seagull at Royal Albatross Colony

[Benny Pan]

Took at Otago Peninsula, the Royal Albatross colony. I sneakily approached this seagull and quietly focus using Sigma 50-150 F2.8 on my Nikon D40. If you zoom in you can tell the eyes are not sharply focused. From my research Sigma AF is not quite as sophisticated as Nikon AF system. So i sharpened the eyes a bit.

In terms of composition do you think the seagull turned its head to a nice position? e.g. relative to its body? How about the weed in the background? Is it distracting?

And the bench? Should I have moved a bit so the bench arises from the left bottom corner rather than from the middle?

Critique hard people :thumbsup:

[Ohjin]

Its good your asking yourself these questions, and its tough when photographing wildlife as it is unpredictable and can move at any moment. So you need to make your descitions quick, which I think youve done well. I would get rid of the weed, and yeah I think more of the rail would be better. But I am not a fan of vignetting.
Keep it up

[n8]

I think it's fine as is...the weed could stay or leave. I also personally like the vignetting as it adds a different element to an otherwise potentially common shot.

[llewpics]

I like the position of the seagull. What actually makes this photo work for me is the position of the gulls right foot ...with it being up as it is, one ends up being curious about potential for gull-dance :-)

It's hard to for me to see what the weed adds to the picture ...probably nothing ... - and, so ...could go.

I would do with more subtle vignetting ...but this is personal preference. a nice black border around this photo may accentuate the bird.

[Benny Pan]

what do you think about the rising point of the bench? I am thinking I should'v moved the angle so that the bench arises from the bottom left corner so it leads reader's eyes to the bird.