Birds in Nature - images of wild birds by Richard Ditch

Subject: Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis)
Place: Colorado River, Lake Havasu, AZ, USA
Date: March 5, 2002
Equipment: Nikon N90S, Nikkor AF-S 300/2.8 & TC20E (= 600/5.6)
Film: Fujichrome Sensia 100
Exposure: aperture priority matrix metered, natural light
Scan: Minolta Dimage; 75% of frame

Commentary: I've tried two things with this image:

• show gulls in a habitat different from our concept of them as "sea gulls"
• find an interesting composition for three subjects

Lake Havasu City is a desert town located along the Colorado River, so it doesn't look like the typical ocean shore image we normally think of with any gull. The mountains in the background are not like coastal plane sand dunes.

I like how all three birds of the same species show us different body positions and zero, one, or two legs. I also like the way the blue of the sky in the background echoes the separation between the solitary gull and the pair on the opposite side of the frame.