Black-headed Gull, Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 27 Sept 2013.
A still life? Really? Well, one way of looking at this is that, since the camera shutter was only open for 1/1600th of a second, it has effectively frozen this instant in the life and doings of this living being – and so it is “Life”, yes, but it is also “Still” – or, more correctly I suppose, “Stilled”! And living things e.g. plants can of course be included in still life assemblages – if their movements are too slow to register in the resulting image.
But the real reason for my calling this a still life is that when I looked at the whole of this image and saw this powerfully down-sweeping wing, I was struck by its beauty, and so cropped the image to make it the main feature – with the bird’s head just peeping into the picture to add a little context. So that, ok, it is a bird in flight, a moving object, but to me it has now become more of a design, or a set piece if you like.
The fundamental difference between this image and a conventional still life is that it is not supported on anything that we can see, like a table top for example. All support here is provided by the whirling and invisible air.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D800 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 400 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4.
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Well done
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Thank you! 🙂
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Excellent capture! Though I hesitate using the rather cliched “capture” when speaking of photographs (something is always lost, no? the moment is gone….), there seems no better way to describe the amazing juncture of focus, awareness and readiness that must have been in place for this image to be made…..
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Yes, I’m not sure of capture either; haha! I’m getting old, and maybe its too near to being a buzz word! Here, the excellent camera helped immeasurably – a large pixel count to help with cropping, and very quick autofocus. 🙂
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Buzz words–yech! 😉
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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Really like the way you’ve cropped the image. Love the monochrome feel
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Very glad its gets to you >>> thank you! 🙂
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Beautiful composition Adrian…delightful
~ smiles hedy ☺️
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Thank you very much, Hedy, very glad it gets to you! Adrian 🙂
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Beautiful, Adrian, and I like the crop a lot.
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Glad it gets to you, Linda – trying different crops is always interesting. 🙂
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Wonderful – and a pretty unique crop! Love it 🙂
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Thank you, my friend. 🙂
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This is one of my very favorites of your gull shots. You really nailed this one.
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Thank you, my friend, that means a lot. 🙂
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Wow…Simply stunning brother ❤❤❤
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Matt – excellent! >>> thank you very much! 🙂
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Birds are not easy to capture
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Yes, that’s true, but modern cameras with very quick autofocus and also spot metering from the active autofocus point do make the task significantly easier. And its also possible for these cameras to fire off numbers of shots per second, though I’ve yet to use that facility. 🙂
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Yeah, I never invested in a DSLR. The Camera I use is a Canon G15. A High End PAS that has the capability to shoot Raw and Jpeg, but no removable lenses. If i try to capture wildlife, I usually use the multi exposure fucntion.
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I still have a Canon G11, which is an excellent camera – I particularly like its fully articulated screen. But these days the electronic viewfinders in mirrorless cameras have really improved markedly and, again, made creative photography much more accessible. 🙂
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its an inspired image, I drew it for my blog 😁
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Thank you, Matt – any time you want to use any of my images in any way, that’s fine with me. 🙂
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I sure do like the backlighting through the wing.
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Very glad it gets to you, my friend. 🙂
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I love this concept and result, Adrian. Your image is exciting and beautiful. “Stilled” life… good one. 🙂
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Jane, thank you very much! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Very effective. ! I like this very much. Bird’s wings have such lovely texture
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Thank you, my friend, thank you! 🙂
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