winging it Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

the seagulls (or as i affectionately call them 'rats with wings') hoard around the ferries at the harbour in incheon, west of seoul.

people buy packets of chips and throw them for the seagulls. so the seagulls fly next to the ferries and they're good at catching the food mid air.

i took a few photos, but none i really liked. it was a terribly overcast day, but very bright. so the sky looks bad and it was difficult to shoot.

i've decided to post this shot. i don't anticipate it being a popular shot (i know that many trekkers hate grainy photos) ... but i like the way it came out.

this shot is exactly how i caught it. no cropping! i've converted it to black and white and played with the levels a little.

stiginthedump, goodwill, andante has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

gaby (19793) 2006-07-10 3:44

David bonjour - great capture and great position of the bird in the frame - I like a lot - technical qualities and BW are +++ -
Have a nice week
Thanks
Rgs
Gaby

bantonbuju (48682) 2006-07-10 3:45

hi dave, it would have been such a successful image if...not that sky :-( somehow something went wrong with the sky and there are some disturbing "stains" - or is it just my screen?
iit may be some coluds but they a kind of distract, imo;
tc, j.

Paolo (40713) 2006-07-10 4:03

Hi David, wonderful shot!
the noise effect have a strong impact with the grey sky and the seagull is perfectly composed in the picture.
great focus too.
excellent.
thanks, ciao

stiginthedump (1823) 2006-07-10 4:17

Nice pic here Dave. Is that a bit of vignetting that I see in the corners of the screen? So how many of you guys went out for your "trek"?

andante (7092) 2006-07-10 21:36

In NY we call the doves, 'rats with wings', wonder who called what first????? I would have added noise to the sky and masked the seagull to keep it sharp. At least it works in my mind's eye. I just discovered how to do BW with channel mixer, it gives you a ot of control, here is the recipe:
- add a layer mask for the channel mixer,
- check the monochrome box at the bottom,
- the red slider will go to 100%, bring it down and play with the other two. Keep in mind the the sum of the 3 sliders in the end should be 100.

Hope it helps,
Cheers,
Enrique

vagabondtravels (6115) 2006-07-12 21:33

David

Great shot. One of your favorite backgrounds. Ralaf and you said you were going to Incheon, not shooting wildlife;) Nice B&W.

Ben

triptych2003 (1398) 2007-03-21 2:09

i actually like the noise in this. i'm not sure why.. the positioning is quite good too. it's obviously difficult when the sky is so bright, but this shows that it can be done. nice job!