Boy meets gull

I recently popped down to the River Severn in Worcester to get some bird images.  As it was a sunny day I took my OM System OM-1 and 100-400 lens.  I knew I would need a fast shutter speed, and at 400mm the lens has got a maximum aperture of just f6.3, so it needs quite a bit of light to avoid having to use a very high ISO.  I found a place on the west bank near the swan sanctuary and waited.  The most active birds were the herring gulls, so I concentrated on them rather than the swans.

The light was falling from directly behind me, so it was not possible to get images with the light shining through the gulls’ feathers.  There was light bouncing off the water and just as this gull came into land some lovely reflected light shone on to the underside of its wings.  It’s almost as if you can see its bones.

The birds went over to the other side of the river as someone had put some food in the water.  I noticed the shadows on the wall from gulls flying out of shot, and took quite a few before I got the arrangement of shadows that worked best.

Although gulls are very elegant as they zoom about the sky, they aren’t always as elegant when they come in to land.  Several had very messy landings, so I kept a look out.  This one has done a real “chest plant”.  I used a shutter speed of 1/3200th sec to stop the water movement, and also to decrease the risk of camera shake.  I like the blue and white reflection here.

I’ll pop back, and put my 1.4x teleconverter on to get even closer – on a sunny day of course.