Are you looking at me?
Deerfield Beach, FL, December 2009
[Click photo to embiggen]
[Click here for more candid photo silliness]
I may be stretching things here. I initially selected this photo for this entry because I figured shooting fast-moving birds is about as candid as you can get. Birds don't smile - at least as far as I can tell - and they don't pose. At least not in the way your sequin-gowned Aunt Wilhemina does when she grabs anyone within arm's reach and crinkles her face into a megawatt fake-smile in the general direction of the camera.
Yet the more I looked at this photo, the more I realized the gull was Looking Straight At Me. If he (she?) were a mangy dog, it would be a Cujo moment and I would suddenly hear ominous music play in my head as the blood nervously rushed out of the rest of my body. But Stephen King was nowhere to be found. So we'll have to go with heavily modified Edgar Allen Poe instead.
Oops, literary tangent there. Sorry. So, the bird's not exactly unaware of my presence. Which makes this photo not-quite-candid. But I'll share it here anyway. Because rules were made to be broken. And I like this photo. More importantly, I like that it reminds me of a day when everything in my world was zooming along pretty nicely. Days at the beach will do that to ya.
Your turn: He (she?) is thinking something. I just can't quite put my finger on it. Can you?
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14 comments:
I personally think this is an Alfred Hitchcock moment and that this bird has "THE BIRDS" on his mind. I would run. Fast. Away. And I would drop that sandwich too.
Perhaps the gull is curious, but that look says to me, "You lookin' at me, Boy?"
Great capture!
One definition of candid: (of a photograph of a person) taken informally, esp. without the subject's knowledge.
I've always thought that any unposed photograph was ok to call candid.
I'd say this is a candid photo unless you posed the gull. Nice the way you captured that look.
The bird is thinkin' "hey, its that dude again, takin' pictures, wonder if I get any royalties?"
That bird's expression is priceless...
I'd say the gull took one look at you and not very candidly thought you may have lunch.
They are a very greedy bird.
as a guy that always stretches the parameters, i think this is a candid shot...
while the bird is thinking something like dont *click* my picture...the setup for the shot was candid...
some of the best edge of candid shots are when the subject realizes that you are taking the shot a split second before the *click*
I had similar thoughts as Kalei's Best Friend...
"Oh boy, there he is again! One of these days I will smash my beak into that flashing thingy of his..."
:D
Oh if you dare stand there beware of falling white.....lol and also if you have anything worth picking up I may just scoop down low and snatch it for my keeping...after all a bird gets hungry flying about silly person.....!
Hmm. I wonder if he has food.
in my mind, these birds do two things other than flying beautifully:
ingest food
excrete waste
i hope you have a filter on your lens
...oh and Max will love this one if he gets a chance to see it...he's a major fan of sea gulls...and this one has such a darling expression on his face....
she is planning the best way to aim and fire a lovely gift at an unspecting target
It's a seagull, people. The only thing going through its mind is whether or not to release a poop bomb directly on top of your head or to locate your car for the release.
Or maybe Canadian seagulls are nicer than the ones in Utah and they don't do that. But in Utah, getting close enough UNDERNEATH one them to photograph it is just asking for a splatter.
"Are there french fries in that thing?"
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