For anyone living in the Northeast I don’t have to tell you how cold it has been in recent weeks. It’s remained so cold that Wolfe’s pond has stayed frozen for a while now. With the combination of higher winds and harsh weather it has forced the gulls to hang out on the ice. I don’t know if you’ve seen waterfowl or gulls come in for an icy landing, but it tends to be quite comical. As they fly in spread eagle they try and grip the ground fruitlessly. They don’t tumble and hurt themselves, just require a longer landing strip.
No joke when I tell you this. There must have been 2,000+ gulls at the time hanging out on the ice and as soon as I even flinched to walk toward the pond they all simultaneously took flight. I of course had no lens ready as my camera was still on my shoulder. There is about 200ft between my car and my destination. I’d say I was half way there behind trees no less and they all just took off. In my desperation I tried to salvage what I could as massive flocks aren’t often seen here taking off. It might seem easy to just point your lens at the flock and fire away, but it isn’t. You have to track the flock looking for patterns. If they become too scattered it tends to look awkward. Also finding your focal point is another factor to throw in. You need to track a subject as it will reflect in your final image. The final result may be a 2D image, but the actual moment is 3D. 4D if you count time 
I was fighting with myself as to put this image in color or not. I kept the white balance on daylight to get that cool blue effect. Further emphasizing the chill that morning. I felt the blue worked for the other images that morning, but not this one. Whenever I get those highly defined dormant winter trees -especially at a distance- I tend to go black and white. That rich dark cluster of trees and bushes are just a great eye catcher.
I don’t often put my subject front and center OK slightly shifted from center, but still the reason stands. Sometimes you need to break the rules. This guy felt very symmetrical that morning and I loved his stare. Also the great look at his posture and feet. I try to see an animals expression. Many may think I am crazy, but I feel all animals have an expression or way about them that is unique. I try and separate our natural human instincts to personify or humanize an animal. So while respecting them enough to let them live their own life in their own habitat; I tend to look for those awkward, humorous, or intense moments in an animals daily life.
. Seriously though; we are putting it on bulb (run the shutter speed slower and slower until you see it past 30 seconds) so that you will control the exposure based on how long you hold the shutter release button on your cable release down. Aperture is variable, but I tend to like f/16. It keeps the fireworks from over exposing too much and gives you an abundance of time for creative results. Usually 9 seconds or so. My ISO stays at the standard calibrated setting for the lowest noise. This is ISO 200 on my D300. How do I know how long to hold it? Depends on whats firing. I watch the show (and not through a viewfinder (yay!)) and hold the remote down as each type of firework fires. When I feel it has painted the canvas or in this case sensor with enough photons I let go of the cable release. It may be short for only a few type of artistic bursts or longer to get a few extra trails or colors. Think carefully as that finale goes off, you won’t get it all. Careful timing however and proper choice will help demonstrate a lot is going off at once. Usually meaning a shorter shutter speed due too so much action.
