Black-headed Gull

I've been spending quite a bit of time over the last few days trying to capture birds in flight (see also Jackdaw, Rook and Red Kite). This Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) seemed an ideal candidate, whirling around on a stiff breeze above a North Norfolk creek crowded with mallard, swans and various geese. Experimenting with various speeds and aperture settings, I eventually twigged that the key is to deliberately overexpose by a couple of stops – the camera falsely reading brightness from the surrounding sky over accurate levels on the bird itself.

All Canon 1Ds MkII