For 3 seconds you did a bang up job catching this image Robert. It is a very chaotic scene but it somehow works for me.
That is not a flock, that is an explosion.
Well caught.
I was trying for something similar the other day, but swans kept getting in the way.
Very nice, Robert! If you have more foreground displaying shadows (not likely if I'm properly understanding the direction of the light), they might add even more drama to an already dramatic photo.
Those new foreground shadows really do make a difference, Rob. Now try just one more thing to see if you like it: Crop the top to just barely above the highest wing tip on the left. Doing so will crop it well below the wing tip on the far right.
Thanks Mike! I tried to use the wing on the far left as the ceiling and it felt too cramped, so I topped it out using the right gull's wing as a guide:
( Click for a better view )
I went back through the shots of this event, and from the time the birds starting to take off to when they were past me was actually only 1 second - I have one more 'in the thick of it' that I'm going to work on and post, maybe we'll get to a better result. Thanks for your help!
That crop also works for me, Rob. However, consider toning down the bright areas of the clouds in the top left area, as they distract from the birds.
The more I look at this photo, the more I like it. Very, very well done!
This is very cool shot
Thanks for posting your gull shots Ken, very cool!
Looks like a shot from DeSoto? Excellent action and like the conversion to B&W ! .. different !!
I like the revision in post #5 the best. This is really great and I think it's hard to pull off a large flock shot. If it were mine, I'd crop off the right side just behind the tail of the lowest bird. Still gives the lead bird a little room to fly in to but gets the half bird out of the foreground. This is a very MINOR gripe and may or may not really improve it. It's just for me the half bird was the first thing I saw...
Edit: Just noticed that if you do that, it takes most of the bird out that you were using to determine the amount of sky so you could then take out more sky if you want. Seems to bring focus down some...
Fantastic shot. This REALLY works well for me. It looks even more amazing at full size (when I hit the "F" key on my keyboard)