Coastal Bird in Flight

[EOBeav]

From our recent trip to the Oregon Coast, probably will be the last in this series. Would like your thoughts about composition, and anything else you believe is pertinent to the discussion. Thanks in advance for your comments.



EXIF:
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

[windrider86]

Love the rocks in the foreground, they really add interest to this. The crop is perfect, the two things I noticed are the grain and the birds beak is a tad bit soft.
Do you have any sort of noise reduction software?

[EOBeav]

Thanks for the comments Windrider. Yes, I use GIMP, and I believe it has some grain/noise reducing capabilities. I also added a mask to this for some (possibly unneeded) effect, so that is possibly what you're seeing. ISO speed was only 400.

You had mentioned the soft beak. In looking at the shot again, I notice that the near wing is quite a bit sharper than the rest of him. Those buggers just won't stay still long enough for me to get the shot in focus! :-) I took several shots of seagulls on this trip, and it seems that the sharpest ones weren't necessarily well composed, and vice versa. I'm going to go through and see what else I can find to post though. Thanks again for your helpful comments.

[JPV]

I love the composition. Since this is an area to critique I will mention something I noticed. The tail seems to be blown out a bit. Maybe some local burn would bring back some detail.

Very nice shot over all !