Gull, please!

Yesterday, I took a quick trip to Montgomery, Alabama.  First on the itinerary was a trip to the Fine Arts Museum.  While there, I did the most obvious thing anyone would do at any art museum: take pictures of birds.

There is a small lake right next to the museum where a lot of birds gather, especially when the museum patrons are tossing bread to them.  If you’re a true birder, you might not like it that much; it’s probably too easy.  But, for me, it was great practice.

I managed to get this shot almost immediately…beginner’s luck.

This bird wants bread.

I processed the photo in Lightroom 4.

For the gull, I lightened the shadows, reduced the clarity, and upped the sharpness a bit.  I also warmed the bird up a little, except for the eyes, beak, and legs.

The cloudy background was darkened slightly with a slight reduction to exposure and I also added some reduction on the clarity bar.

The clump of bread was not harmed in the processing of this image; OK…there was a little color fringing near the bread, so I fixed that.

It was the most I had ever used the adjustment brush in LR4, and a trained eye can probably spot that fact right away.  Still, I had to try.

And, overall, I have to say I like the photo…for now.