funny how I came back to this shot..just traveling around the site to look for new challenges, and boom! i realized that this image impact me so much, that every time I think of taking an image, I try to look for the leader :)
amazing capture and most of all one you can't forget.
I love to come across old pictures on DPC and this is a beaut! Adore everything about it, and am delighted it won the challenge. Congrats, so well deserved. Would love to know how you managed the shot. I'm guessing from your lens and the shallow dof that you were a ways away...?
What a great shot! Lovely DOF. So fun - what do you suppose he's thinking? Whatever he's thinking, it was very kind of him to model for your fabulous new PB and lovely splash of blue for your profile! I hope you at least offered him a cheese doodle for his effort!? : )
Lovely dof usage here. Something I would expect to see in Nat Geo. Great tonal values throughout this image, love the bokeh, just enough to still make out the birds. Beautiful.
I really like the way you used a shallow depth of field to single out the one bird. Make him/her look like the spokes person for the group. And although I guess birds don't really get expressions, the coloring and camera angle are perfect for a ver humerous "expression".
Really great shot. You can imagine the bird saying "Take us to your leader" or "Me and my pals are gonna make you eat that camera." A well-deserved blue ribbon.
Congratulations, Karen - this was one of my 10s and a favorite for the challenge. Really well-done handling of DOF. Great good luck with the composition too, to have them all more or less looking forward at you like that, with that frontrunner's enigmatic expression - lends a weirdness to it, like we just might be in danger from them.
Karen - a well deserved win - I think this is a fabulous shot. Just goes to show that with the right shot you don't need something big and exotic to capture peoples attention - just a really great picture !!
Congratulations on your first blue, Karen. Great shot that I am sure was either a very fortuitous situation or, more likely, a lot of hard work and waiting.
Congrats on the Blue, Karen... and your first Blue at that! Stellar image tha had my wife & I laughing out loud when we first saw it - somehow just has a comical feel to it. What a perfect title :O) Well done!
Congratulations! This is such a fun and delightful shot - I'm very pleased to see this win the blue! Alternate title - Leader of the Pack. I also get a kick out of how he appears rather cross-eyed.
Great photo. Best of the bunch in my opinion. I can't think of anything to make it better. Perhaps the larger pebble between the bird's legs is a distraction, but I still love it.
This to me, is a great example of a sort of 'ordinary' choice of wildlife subject, but your composition is so delightful in combination with your DOF choice, it is really enjoyable shot. It is great how you got them to line up like that : )
I would highly recommend with wildlife subjects if you do not have catch lights in its eyes that you make the shot 100 or 200% and then take a small dodge brush maybe 4-5 and then dodge in a catch light usually there is a small light there and you can just increase it to be a bit stronger. Works with people too.
Try it and see what you think : )
7
Back again. Love this photograph. Still my choice for a ribbon. I love this shot. As a critique, I would have loved to see you carry out the center composition by cropping just a bit more off the right side of the image to completely fill the background with his mates, and placing him dead center. 10 from me.
Very captivating capture. I like the soft white and gray hues and the way the main gull is lined up in the center with the rest of his flock lined up behind him with just the right amount of dof to render them a bit out of focus.
Magnificent shot !! Looks like some sort of alien invasion with their spokeman pushed to the front Perfect DoF and focus on the lead bird, whilst still showing the orientation ogf the birds behind.
Awesome. Makings of a great nature shot. DOF, focus on the eyes and in its natural surrondings. Hope this lands on the front page. Only regret is that I didn't take this pic.
lol its like some sort of seagull militia, kinda frightening almost. like a new remake of Hitchcock's "The Birds". I really love your DOF here, makes the photo very interesting and draws my eye onto the center bird. great photo, i would be very please if i had taken it:) -9
ROFLOL! I love this. My clear favorite in the challenge for humor and storytelling. Sea Gulls always seem to have attitude in spades and you captured that perfectly using this straight-on perspective and enough DOF to single out the leader of the gang. The title is icing on the cake. Well done :-)))
I really like the idea behind this shot, and love that you got down low and face to face, so to beak. (oops, speak.) I think a just slightly wider depth of field would have brought a tiny bit more of the shot into focus while still clearly separating the front bird from the pack. Bravo on an interesting and thought provoking shot!
The Gathering
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