Thursday, Oct 1, 2026

[Don]

Another new month and the last quarter of the year.

[Rich]

WoW Don! These are amazing!

The gull is amazing! Very sharp! The sunbursts in the second photo adds a lot of interest!
Rock formation is great, a calm day! Is that in Cabo?

[Don]

Thanks Rich. The bird is actually a Northern Gannet. There was a nesting colony nearby with thousands of birds. I was wishing I had a longer lens with me, but all I had was a 200mm. I don't usually travel with the longer 600mm unless it is a birding trip.

The second photo was taken from a boat ride in Gaspé, Quebec. We were told that there used to be 2 arches but the outer one collapsed some years ago. We were on our way to cruise around the Gannet nesting colonies.

[Dave]

Nice images, Don.

The Gannet photo: I can sense how the bird found and effortlessly rode an updraft.

The second one is quite stunning. But I gotta say that I'm wondering why the water is gray under that intensely blue sky; shouldn't the water pick up some of the blue? It almost looks unnatural to me - compare it to the color of the water in your third image, which seems to have picked up more of the blue from the sky.

The Gaspe arch photo is wonderful!

[Don]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, the one photo was put through some filters. I've posted the original below which I thought didn't really offer much.  Also, I would like opinions on the two B&W images, which looks better. I took Rich's suggestion on the structure in the bottom right of the previously posted image and (1) cropped it out and (2) tried to remove it with AI. I'm afraid the cropped image takes away too much of the foreground. 

Comments appreciated.

[Rich]

Agree, the forground interest is lost on the cropped image. The AI image is better. Looks a little more "lonely." It speaks to me! I wonder if AI added a little shadow to the water on the right?