Blog: Laughing Gulls

 

By Photography by Layne Kennedy, www.laynekennedy.blogspot.com
 
Figure 1
 
Gulls are a common sight around the Gulf coast in Fulton, Texas. Like most species of gulls they hang around parking lots waiting for dropped French fries or pieces of popcorn to supplement their diet of potato chips and the occasional fish from the sea.
 
It was an awful photographic day of gray skies and rain. In these situations photographers work hard to avoid showing sky in their frames because it offers no color and tends to look washed out or dreadfully flat. I spotted someone in the parking lot tossing up raisins or something, trying to feed the gulls and saw a photo op.
 
To add some punch to this flat scene a flash was required. Other problems existed as well. The gulls would swoop in and out of the frame with amazing speed so a fast shutter speed was also required.
 
With my Nikon D3 I can set the flash sync to high-speed sync allowing me to shoot at shutter speeds over 1/6000th of a second. Using fill light with the flash I stopped the action and illuminated the gulls enough that even with their black and white coloration, they popped off the flat light in the background.
 
One additional obstacle remained. Shooting in an urban parking lot promises the background to have distracting streetlights, cars, telephone wires, etc. There’s a simple solution. Move closer to your subject, get down low and eliminate the distracting clutter by framing the subject against a clean, albeit gray sky. Let the magic begin!