So I'm grading some homeworks and doing some of mine own at the UCSB beach and after a while I get bored. Of course I have my camera with me. The obligatory "look at the seagull" shot above. I like it, actually, because the sand and the seagull is mostly shades of gray. This means that I can play around with the background (the ocean and sky) quite a bit without changing the color properties of the foreground. I took advantage and put a different hint on the ocean for effect, and also made the entire image more harsh to try to reflect the blazing sun overhead. Lesson: isolate foreground colors and you can play around much easier in photoshop.

Now for the bastard part. At one point, I got interested in this somewhat ugly seagull. It wasn't white like the other but brown. There was a bit of an ugly duckling phenomenon with it. I started taking a lot of pictures of it and getting closer and closer. What can I say? I must identify with it =P So after a whlie, I thought about getting an action shot of it but it wouldn't really fly away...and I wanted to be ready when it did. So I kept on edging closer and bothering it before it finally took off. OK, I'm a bastard, but I did get a shot of it flying, even if it's from the butt-side. Better than nothing. Live and learn next time.