{"id":55028,"date":"2018-11-18T05:05:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T12:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=55028"},"modified":"2025-08-05T18:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:32:00","slug":"ring-billed-gull-in-flight-changing-backgrounds-from-one-frame-to-the-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/18\/ring-billed-gull-in-flight-changing-backgrounds-from-one-frame-to-the-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Ring-billed Gull In Flight – Changing Backgrounds From One Frame To The Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull in flight in front of a willow – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I am photographing birds in flight there are times when the background changes drastically from one frame to the next, some times that is a good thing, sometimes it isn’t great because it can affect the exposure dramatically but there are times when the results can be very pleasing to my eyes.<\/p>\n

On New Year’s Day this year I had a Ring-billed Gull in flight in my viewfinder as it flew quickly over my local pond, I knew that from one frame to another the background would change and that the exposure might too but since I like gulls and practically anything Larus I decided to photograph the gull anyway.<\/p>\n

In this first frame the Ring-billed Gull\u00a0 was flying in front of a leafless willow tree that showed blue sky in the background, I had a great pose, nice light and eye contact with my subject. Even as I took the shot I knew that by the time the next shot in my burst was taken the gull would have flown past the last branches of the willow towards a more open sky background.<\/p>\n

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull in flight in bright afternoon light – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

What I didn’t anticipate was that a tree further in the distance would be at the bottom of the frame, I expected nothing but the sky there.<\/p>\n

Even though it has been months since I took this image I still don’t know if I like having that out of focus, darker tree at the bottom of this frame but I know I like having the willow in the first image.<\/p>\n

I do like the sky in this frame though because there were some clouds in the distance that made it so that I didn’t have a solid blue sky.<\/p>\n

From one frame to the next there are situations when I just don’t know what kind of background I will get when photographing birds in flight and I guess that makes bird photography even more interesting to me.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Ring-billed Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On New Year’s Day this year I had a Ring-billed Gull in flight in my viewfinder as it flew quickly over my local pond, I knew that from one frame to another the background would change and that the exposure might too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,410,709,26],"tags":[5554,6885,4052,3539,521,4264,4468],"class_list":["post-55028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ring-billed-gulls","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-afternoon-light","tag-changing-background","tag-flight","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-ring-billed-gull"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-new-years-2018-mia-mcpherson-4803.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ejy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34695,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/03\/ring-billed-gull-in-flight-at-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":55028,"position":0},"title":"Ring-billed Gull in Flight at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this Ring-billed Gull in flight at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on New Year's Day on the west side of the auto tour loop.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flying Ring-billed Gull and snow covered mountains in the background. 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photographed this Ring-billed Gull at Fort De Soto's north beach there were baitfish in the hundreds of thousands running just off shore and pelicans, egrets, terns and gulls were all in a feeding frenzy.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull against dark background, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3910.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3910.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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