{"id":5854,"date":"2012-08-05T05:04:07","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T11:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5854"},"modified":"2025-07-13T10:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T15:41:19","slug":"laughing-gull-small-in-the-frame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/08\/05\/laughing-gull-small-in-the-frame\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughing Gull – Small in the Frame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LaughingLaughing Gull, non-breeding, small in the frame – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

On occasion I like to take images where the subject; in my case it is usually birds, is small in the frame instead of nearly filling it when the background habitat is as visually interesting as the main subject itself.<\/p>\n

On the day that I photographed this Laughing Gull either Hurricane Ike or Gustav was out near the center of the Gulf of Mexico<\/span><\/a> that was churning up the water and sending\u00a0large waves towards the shorelines of west-central Florida.<\/p>\n

These were Atlantic coast sized waves not the smaller, more gentle ones we were used to on the Gulf coast.<\/p>\n

When I saw the gull standing on a shelf of sand just above the shoreline with the crashing waves behind it I liked the contrast of the calm look of the water where the bird was compared to the tumultuous waves in the background and the varied shades of blue so I backed up to allow more of the water to be visible in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

I like the resulting image a lot.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

On the day that I photographed this Laughing Gull either Hurricane Ike or Gustav was out near the center of the Gulf of Mexico that was churning up the water<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,188,76],"tags":[5229,5132,1722,37,4153,4077,3539,521,3995,4160,4246,3980,4043,12092,5424,4119],"class_list":["post-5854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-laughing-gulls-gulls","category-small-in-the-frame","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-crashing-waves","tag-florida-2","tag-fort-de-soto-county-park","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-laughing-gull","tag-leucophaeus-atricilla","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-pinellas-county","tag-small-in-frame","tag-tumultuous","tag-wave","tag-waves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-waves-mia-mcpherson-0186.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1wq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42825,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/10\/25\/laughing-gull-sliding-across-the-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":5854,"position":0},"title":"Laughing Gull Sliding Across the Water","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Of the images I took that day on the beach, and there were tons of them, this image of a Laughing Gull sliding across the water as it chased a fish in the shallow waves was one of my favorites.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Laughing Gull slip sliding away\u2026 Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-slip-sliding-mia-mcpherson-0384.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-slip-sliding-mia-mcpherson-0384.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret hunting, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Among the bait fish skirmishes one solitary Ring-billed Gull stood out to me and as it flew after the Reddish Egret and Laughing Gulls I kept my lens trained on it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull Ballet, 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-landing-mia-mcpherson-0421.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-landing-mia-mcpherson-0421.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-landing-mia-mcpherson-0421.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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