Crawdad breakfast

Gallery: AvianPosted December 7, 20151,108 views8 comments

I took this this morning, just before sunrise. The shallow waters of one of the conservation pools at Cheyenne Bottoms WA, central Kansas, glowed in the early light. I was tracking the Ring-billed Gull waiting for it to enter the better lit section of water when it dove and came up with a large crawdad. 7D2, ISO 200, f/8, 1/800, 300mm partially cropped. C&C always welcome and appreciated.

Edit: please look at the large version, it shows the colors to be much more saturated than the small version, at least to my eyes.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Cay-Uwe Kulzer on December 8, 2015 at 4:45 AM

Rob,

the colors of the water are really very nice and the silhoutte of the seagull with its prey works fine to me. I think in this case a 3:4 format woul have worked also, but that is just another option. Even when nothing can be done about it, I would have preffered that the seagull would be possing more towards the viewer.

I have noticed also at my monitor that the small images look less saturated as when opened large enlightened

Registered on January 27, 2004, 494 Posts, 4021 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on December 8, 2015 at 2:53 PM

Glorious color reflected in that water, Rob. I like the reflected silhouette as well. Nicely done.

devil

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on December 8, 2015 at 3:40 PM

Very neat image IMHO! The colors which are best in the larger version, really make this photo stand out. Like the position of the gull and the reflection. Maybe a bit more space on the bottom if available. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Graham on December 8, 2015 at 11:11 PM

Thanks for the comments. I wish there was more room on the bottom; I got lucky with what I got :). The bird could be turned a little more towards me, but this pose shows off the crawdad nicely.

Is the lack of saturation on small images typical now? The small image was generated from the large version.

Registered on August 22, 2006, 842 Posts, 2824 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on December 9, 2015 at 12:04 PM

A very nice capture and great use of the opportunity the bird gave you. A bit surprising to see the bird still molting primaries this late in the year. The larger image, with the color through the primaries, is much stronger.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on December 11, 2015 at 6:56 PM

Beautiful image Rob, love the colors and the fact that the crawdad stands out so well, I agree ideally that you would have a little more room on the bottom but that's minor and this is an evocative image for sure. devil

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on December 11, 2015 at 7:01 PM

Very nice artistic shot here Rob. I like the ripples in the golden water and of course the gull with a meal and shadow reflection certainly makes this interesting. Nice work!

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on December 13, 2015 at 6:18 AM

Nice catch indeed. Cheers, Hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments