Glaucous-winged Gull Blurs

Glaucous-winged Gull
Image © 2011/Denise Ippolito Photography
Homer Alaska ~ Glaucous-winged Gull

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION


Glaucous-winged Gull
Image © 2011/Denise Ippolito Photography
Homer Alaska ~ Glaucous-winged Gull

These blurs were captured from a small boat while I was in Alaska, I hand held my Canon 100-400mm lens. My shutter speed for both was 1/20 sec. It was snowing so I tried to wait for the gulls to be against the dark mountainous background. I cropped them both and did some repair to one of the heads :) . I added some Unsharp Mask to help the snow look more squiggly. These were both taken on the final day of my Alaskan adventure. I hope to post some more images from my trip soon… To learn more about creating pleasing blurs check out
“A Guide to Pleasing Blurs” that I co-wrote with Arthur Morris.


______________________________________________________________ denise ippolito


contestbanner
Don’t forget to enter ~ THE BIRDS AS ART 1st International Bird Photography Competition


19 Responses

  1. Don Schroder says:
    October 31, 2011 at 5:41 pm

    Wow Denise! Really, really nice. Love the gossamer wings and the subtle touch of the snow. What a way to end the trip.
    Don

    Thanks Don. They do look a bit like gossamer wings. It was a special day for sure and a great ending to a great trip.
    denise

  2. Edith Levy says:
    October 31, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    Just beautiful Denise. I love the blur on the wings especially in the second image.

    Thanks Edith, I appreciate the comment and the tweet!
    denise

  6. Cheryl Slechta says:
    October 31, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    Denise, these are so beautiful. They have an ethereal quality that I love. I’m glad you had a great trip!

    Cheryl, It was a great trip and I was overwhelmed. I hope to get some more of my images processed. These really appealed to me. Thank you so much :)
    denise

  7. Marc Collins says:
    October 31, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    I admire those photographers that capture birds and other wildlife as I would not have the patience to do it!
    This is a great, the wing blur is amazing.

    Marc, I appreciate it. I bet if you did photograph wildlife your images would be fantastic!
    denise

  8. Dennis Bishop says:
    October 31, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    There’s a lot to like about the second image, especially — the background, the blur, the turn and tones of the body. Although I didn’t recognize them for what they are, I liked the snow squiggles, too.

    If I remember what you said, you were shooting pretty much without a tripod. Is the 100-400 lens image-stabilized? If so — and if you had that turned on — did you have problems with battery life in the cold?

    Thanks Dennis, I didn’t use my tripod at all during the trip except for one HDR image captured from the balcony of the hotel. My pro body has a great battery but if I was using a 40D my battery would have never lasted the day.
    denise

  9. Gretchen Thompson says:
    October 31, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    Thanks for sharing… these are so hard to get. I’d better slow down to 1/20.

    Hi Gretchen, Thank you for visiting my blog. I created several of these to get a few I liked :)
    denise

  10. John Storjohann says:
    October 31, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    #2 is stunning, Denise…wow! I’m seldom at a loss for words…or suggestions…but this one is stunning.

    John, I saw this one on the back of my camera and I remember how big my smile was…
    denise

  13. Andrea Boyle says:
    November 1, 2011 at 2:37 am

    I knew you would be coming back with some awesome shots! When I see shots like these, I am always struck with the photographer’s thought process… For me, it might be a lucky and opportune moment, but I’m sure for you there is a planned element to the result. Both captures are awesome, but I think I give the nudge to the 2nd one as my favorite. I think your blur book will be my next addition to my photography collection!

    Thanks Andrea, I appreciate the kind words. I had thought about waiting till the end of the day when I could no longer capture a sharp flight shot to switch to blur mode but other than that I guess it really is just a matter of taking lots of them to get a couple of keepers. Of course having an idea of how much blur you will get with different shutter speeds and distances helps a little. :)
    denise

  15. Rob Melone says:
    November 1, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    I appreciate the effort that went into these stunningly artistic images. Thank you, Denise for your hard work and tenacity! Question for you: I can see by the falling snow that light was low, but did you also use a ND filter to compensate for the 1/20 shutter in order to achieve the motion blur? With so much available in PP nowadays, it is hard at times to tell what occurred at time of capture. Thanks and please keep these inspiring images coming! We need them to stay motivated!

    Thanks Rob, The light was low and I did not have to use a ND filter, I exposed for the bird while shooting in manual mode. My ISO was 320 and my f-stop f/7.1, so you can see how low the light really was. I pushed my exposure as far to the right as I could w/o getting blinkies. I had already decided that to make the snow stand out I would need a dark background, so I waited for the birds to be in front of the dark cliff. The exposures are pretty much straight out of camera with some fine tuning.
    denise

  16. Rob Melone says:
    November 1, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Thanks for the info, Denise. I intend to give this a try at Barnegat Jetty (my home away from home). The harlequins should be arriving next month along with scoters, long tails, gannets, eiders and sandpipers (all of my favorite winter subjects).

    Rob, I start going in December so I’ll probably see you on the jetty :)
    denise

  17. Rob Melone says:
    November 1, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    On a calm, clear day in winter my favorite time on the jetty is between 3:00 & 4:00 when most people have left, the light is over the shoulder and golden, the wind has died down and the tide is low. It seems that during this time of day there is a sense of tranquility on the jetty that I haven’t found elsewhere. The birds sense this I think and they seem to quiet down and settle in, as do I. Wait long enough and in comes a loon or a male eider and the harlequins are starting to fly from one group to another. I love it! Perfect for capturing images handheld with no more than a 300mm lens! The only issue, which you may already know, is that you have to be out of the parking lot by 4:00. So, it’s best to park outside the lot. I’ll look for you, Denise!

    Rob, You might find my Barnegat Jetty Site Guide an interesting read.:)
    denise

  18. Mark Hardymon says:
    November 2, 2011 at 2:27 am

    Love the blurs, Denise. I really do need to spend some more time working on these. Great week!!

    Mark, I really didn’t take as many as I could have on this trip, I think it was a great week too :)
    denise

Leave a Reply

*