That looks pretty good. Chris. The bird was caught well and there is another point of interest in the composition that you might wish to explore to its full potential sometime in the future.....an unfurled flag etc.
Seagulls also make excellent BIF photography practice targets because they are generally plentiful in many parts of the Continent, they do not shun humans and have relatively easy flight pattern.
A few suggestions:
(1) 300 f/4 bare (i.e., no TCs) makes a very good BIF lens.
(2) Generally speaking, shutter speed 1000-2000/sec is sufficient. If you wanna portray wing tip blur, then dial in a value closer to 1000/sec.
(3) Shoot at no faster than 3 FPS. Very carefully observe/maintain focus while tracking and firing.
(4) Avoid at all costs shooting common birds (like seagulls) against vacant sky.
Any nicely diffused/blurred background is better than no background. Obviously, if you chance upon an uncommon bird, you\'d fire at it whatever the background might be.
As an example, here is a shot I took yesterday. Although the bird\'s head is shaded, I felt it had merit to it because of the appealing background.
Nov 09, 2009 at 10:53 AM
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