Sky Bird

[oleleclos]

This title probably betrays a lot of things, but first and foremost a romantic, youthful dream called Jonathan Livingston Seagulll. At least it does to those of you old enough to remember.

A dream that you could be whatever you wanted to be as long as you tried hard enough and believed strongly enough. A dream that came true for some of us.



RALLY EACH HEART TO THE SIGHT OF YOUR SILVER WINGS

I made this picture from an almost throw-away shot of seagulls overhead made while I was on the beach shooting surfers. This is the original:



LOST ON A PAINTED SKY WHERE THE CLOUDS ARE HUNG FOR THE POET'S EYE

It wasn't until I started playing with it in Lightroom that the old dream stirred, and soon Jonathan came flying out of the sky. I hope to touch someone else's heart who was as inspired as I was by the story of this lowly seagull.

C&C, please (late addition )

[terrib]

You did a fine job of bringing out the detail and colors from the original and capturing a nice sharp image to begin with.

As to the story, I should read it again as an adult. I'm sure I'd appreciate it more now than when I was forced to read it in school many, many years ago.

[Sergio M.]

Very well done, Ole. A wonderful picture for a wonderful story. Sometimes we forget the inspiring stories of our youth because we get so involved in the humdrum of life. Thanks for the reminder of a long forgotten story.

Serge

[FrankMi]

A very wise choice of background showing the seagull soaring above the clouds, Ole! That change really adds dynamism to the image.

[oleleclos]

A very wise choice of background showing the seagull soaring above the clouds, Ole! That change really adds dynamism to the image.

Thanks Frank. And it was so easily done with Lightroom 4's brush tool. I loaded a brush with a blue colour temperature compensation and used it to change the grey cloud. The auto masking feature kept the seagull unaffected, and the soft edge towards the lighter clouds was created by feathering the brush.

The second change I did - again with the brush and auto masking - was lighten and slightly sharpen the seagull.

The final change was copying some cloud into the only patch of blue sky in the original picture, so as not to have that distraction in the bottom right hand corner.

BTW, the clone/repair tool is the only part of LR I am not entirely happy with. It's restricted to circles and gets very cumbersome if you need to work with other shapes. Adobe, please take note ;-)