{"id":61820,"date":"2019-11-29T06:26:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T13:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61820"},"modified":"2024-10-11T04:55:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T09:55:59","slug":"winter-weather-and-low-light-bird-photography-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/29\/winter-weather-and-low-light-bird-photography-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Weather And Low Light Bird Photography Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gulls in a snow storm fighting over a crayfish \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 2500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

My Thanksgiving Day was cold, dreary, snowy and I only saw the shape of the cold looking sun for about three minutes yesterday through the gray clouds. I did attempt to photograph birds yesterday at the local pond but there weren’t many there plus a vehicle was in the way.<\/p>\n

I actually like photographing birds in a snow storm because the low light situations test my skills, the limits of my gear and the resulting photos often have a moody feeling to them. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have been as comfortable pushing my Nikon D200 up to ISO 2500 like I did with this Ring-billed Gull photo taken two years because with that body I know the images would have had far more noise than they do with my Nikon D500. Now, I find the challenge of photographing birds in low light situations fun.<\/p>\n

\"NovemberNovember 29, 2019 – Radar\/Satellite<\/p>\n

Which is probably a good thing when I look at the radar\/satellite images from this morning. If I do get out today to photograph birds I know that I will have clouds and low light to deal with. Not that long ago if I had seen a weather map that looked like this I would have simply stayed home.<\/p>\n

\"NovemberNovember 29, 2019 – Hourly<\/p>\n

And if I had seen an hourly forecast that showed clouds, rain, and snow for every daylight hour I may have grumbled a bit and looked at the long term forecast for when the forecast predicted that there might be some sunshine ahead.<\/p>\n

Now… I think of the moody, snowy images I might possibly take and smile.<\/p>\n

And 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":"

I actually like photographing birds in a snow storm because the low light situations test my skills, the limits of my gear and the resulting photos often have a moody feeling to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135494,"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":[27,50,410,709,26,613],"tags":[2545,2544,4052,4122,5830,3539,521,4264,156,4468,4693,4050,4509,4899,3996,373,8089],"class_list":["post-61820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-low-light","category-ring-billed-gulls","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","category-weather","tag-crawdad","tag-crayfish","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-food-fight","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-low-light-2","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-skirmish","tag-snow","tag-snow-storm","tag-snowstorm","tag-water","tag-winter","tag-winter-weather"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gulls-food-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-5849.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-g56","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49939,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/17\/ring-billed-gulls-flying-in-a-december-snow-storm\/","url_meta":{"origin":61820,"position":0},"title":"Ring-billed Gulls Flying in a December Snow Storm","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The light wasn't great when I photographed these Ring-billed Gulls flying in a December snow storm but I had a great time with the gulls and the rest of the birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Ring-billed Gull flying in a snow storm, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-snow-mia-mcpherson-5867.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-snow-mia-mcpherson-5867.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-snow-mia-mcpherson-5867.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-snow-mia-mcpherson-5867.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44287,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/09\/ring-billed-gull-with-crayfish-in-the-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":61820,"position":1},"title":"Ring-billed Gull with Crayfish in the Snow – Plus Our Crazy Weather in Northern Utah Right Now","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week while I was photographing birds at the local pond I saw a Ring-billed Gull catch a crayfish at the shoreline then it gobbled it up quickly before the rest of the gulls realized it had food.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull with Crayfish, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.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-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62602,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/13\/winter-ring-billed-gulls-from-low-light-to-afternoon-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":61820,"position":2},"title":"Winter Ring-billed Gulls – From Low Light To Afternoon Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't say that I prefer one of these Ring-billed Gull images over the other, the low light image is as appealing to me as the one I took in afternoon light. I enjoy them both.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Winter Ring-billed Gull eating snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-drinking-snow-mia-mcpherson-1871.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-drinking-snow-mia-mcpherson-1871.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-drinking-snow-mia-mcpherson-1871.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-drinking-snow-mia-mcpherson-1871.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":122561,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/04\/ring-billed-gull-and-a-heart-shaped-snowflake\/","url_meta":{"origin":61820,"position":3},"title":"Ring-billed Gull And A Heart Shaped Snowflake","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been six years since I took this photo of a Ring-billed Gull and a heart shaped snowflake in the middle of a winter snowstorm at my local pond.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull and a heart shaped snowflake, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-heart-snowflake-mia-mcpherson-5666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-heart-snowflake-mia-mcpherson-5666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-heart-snowflake-mia-mcpherson-5666.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-heart-snowflake-mia-mcpherson-5666.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":76226,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/17\/serious-looking-ring-billed-gull-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":61820,"position":4},"title":"Serious Looking Ring-billed Gull On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I love photographing gulls. Whether they are feeding, resting, preening, fighting, calling, or in flight gulls are one of my favorite bird species to have in my viewfinder.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Serious looking Ring-billed Gull in flight, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.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-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44528,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/22\/gulls-ducks-and-geese-in-a-snow-storm\/","url_meta":{"origin":61820,"position":5},"title":"Gulls, Ducks, and Geese in a Snow Storm","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent about 40 minutes photographing the gulls, ducks and geese in the snow storm here in northern Utah yesterday and had a lot of fun doing it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Canada Geese in a snow storm, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-flight-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-7222.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-flight-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-7222.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-flight-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-7222.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-flight-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-7222.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}