26 February 2010

Gullruffle, Flounder Bay

Feeling better now
On a grim morning with dark rain out at sea and moving closer, we wandered the beach near the mouth of the stream. Anne-Marie did some yoga; I prowled for pictures. This tarapunga (red-billed gull) stood preening on a rock at the water’s edge, safe from the surging surf that raced and foamed upstream. Gulls appear in photos most often in their clean, sleeked-down state; this time I concentrated on catching a different look. (The shutter speed was 1/250 s).

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor
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4 comments:

Barbara Butler McCoy said...

I'm not sure what impresses me most - the crisp red and white, the look in the gull's eye, or the gull's stability in the midst of that wind. Very nice, thank you;-)

27 February 2010 at 02:36
pohanginapete said...

Cheers Barbara. These gulls almost always look intensely alert — always keeping an eye out for an opportunity, I guess. Actually, it wasn't particularly windy, although it looks like it in the photo; if you've ever watched a gull preening, you'll notice how, after a lot of nibbling and wiping and smoothing, they generally give everything a good shake. This was precisely that moment.
:^)

27 February 2010 at 09:53
Me from Cali said...

Interesting effect of the usual background bokeh, (which in this photo is lovely), but also with a similar effect with the blurred wing in the foreground. Also, the view of only one leg -- like a pedestal coming out of the rock with. Also the color balance of the leg and the beak.

27 February 2010 at 20:18
pohanginapete said...

Thanks for those thoughts, Paul. I think it was the echo of the background in the blurred wing (or vice versa) that attracted my attention when I first looked at the photo (the lens was the Canon 300mm f4 L).

27 February 2010 at 21:52

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