Quick Shot: Bath

Gulls aren't the most interesting subject to photograph.... unless I get a chance to capture them doing something really cool! 

Like most beaches, Assateauge Island had hundreds of gulls. And like most beaches, the gulls aren't shy and are willing to approach humans with big cameras and pose. 

I befriended this Franklin's Gull because he was wiling to bathe himself just a few feet from me, which provided a great opportunity to get some unique shots of him splashing in the water. 

Part of the cleaning ritual involved dunking his head and 1/3 of his body underwater, than jumping up and shaking the water off. The split second when his head came up and he flung the water off his face intrigued me the most - and it became my goal to capture that brief moment in time. 

I knew I needed a super fast shutter speed, so I shot at 1/1500th of a second to freeze the water droplets.  

To get this perspective, I also had to get low to the ground so that I was almost eye level with the gull. His bath lasted several minutes, giving me plenty of chances to capture the perfect shot.  I edited the best one in Adobe Photoshop CS6.