You’ll probably hate these photos…But I love them!

It is a dilemna photographers deal with all the time…What do you do when you have a subject but the light is horrid? Well, you can go home…You can shoot regular images that you’ll probably throw away soon after downloading…Or you can put on your creative thinking cap and experiment!

First, I must confess that I love “seagulls.” I am a birder who’s been birding for over 30 years and I’ve seen most of North America’s regular species. Birders love a challenge and gull identification is a challenge! Most species have three or four plumages and many more variations. Lake Superior attracts quite a few species including some rarities from the Arctic and Siberia.

So one gloomy fall day, while scoping the gulls at the Superior Entry (between Duluth’s Park Point and Superior’s Wisconsin Point), I decided to start a feeding frenzy by chucking old Wonder Bread (old, but disturbingly not moldy after a month in my car) into the canal. Ravenous gulls converged on the soggy snack. I slowed the shutter to 1/15 or 1/8 second just to see what would happen. Instant impressionistic art! I love the motion of the gulls wings and the splashing water. At home, I played with the colors in Aperture…I tried black-and-white but it did nothing for me…But the pastel aquas and pinks I got by super saturating the images created a pleasing look.

There is no right or wrong in art. If it pleases you, the creator, then it is good. I know most of you will not like these at all…But for me they are a really interesting and pleasing result from a gloomy day.