I got this idea that I should take some photos of seagulls. On saturday I went to the fish market and bought trout that we ate for dinner and when I cleaned the fish I decided to save the waste, so that I could use it to bribe the seagulls.
Even if I had baksheesh (Baksheesh – a term used to describe tipping, charitable giving, and certain forms of political corruption and bribery in the Middle East and South Asia.) the seagulls didn’t seem to like the fact that I was hanging around after having left the baksheesh as bait: Those ungrateful bastards were flipping and turning in the air, which left me with a whole bunch of useless photos that could have been perfect for the latest WordPress “Unfocused – Weekly Photo Challenge“.
Here’s one of the few photos that I didn’t delete. the focus isn’t perfect, but still it’s an ok picture.
This is how a post-processed seagull looks like…
and this is how an original seagull looks like.
The good thing is that now I’ve come up with another plan, so next time I hope to outsmart them and get more decent photos.
The technique I’ve used on the manipulated image is the same as in this post:
cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/the-alligator-lens-blur-effect
Cardinal Guzman 
but they see sharply everything
Reminds me of this clip I saw of a seagull that steals a camera:
Baksheesh Badao saab 😉
What a beautiful shot the second one ..the post processed one looks like a vintage photo…loved them both 🙂
Thanks. I was actually planning to add some coffee stains to get that real vintage effect!
The difference is incredible…am totally digging the first one 🙂 Both are cute though.
Thanks for the positive feedback Veeh!
Morrn,
Loved the processed one … he looks almost surreal ..but mean 🙂
Strangely enough, I shot a few gulls too, today. Haven’t brought them up yet…
They are always on the hunt for fish — fish that they STEAL from the cormorants. The cormorant comes up out of the water with a fish in his mouth, and the gulls are hovering, to snap it. Sometimes they’re lucky. One day, someone had left a whole pile of white bread there, but the gulls refused it?! Must have been really bad bread LOL
Seagulls can be rude. I don’t like them, but sometimes they can look great on photos. This morning some of them were in my backyard making a lot of noise: those are the times that you just wish you had a shotgun…
I quite like the processed one although I find the background slightly ‘soft’ in that version… 🙂
Thanks for the feedback Nigel.
Yes the background might be a bit too soft. Luckily it’s an easy process to sharpen it up. All I need to do is to lower the opacity of the processed layer.
What a transformation. I love the processed one. I’d love to know how you blurred the buildings in the processed pic – if it wouldn’t be too much work to explain.
No problem Jude. I basically used the same method as in this picture, the only diffenrce is that instead of working with the RGB channels I worked with a grey channel: https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/the-alligator-lens-blur-effect
Going to check it out! Thanks 🙂
Very nice! I really like the muted tone of the edited version.
Thanks Gracie.
The original is a really nice, realistic photo. The processed one is a reflection, I think, of the artist’s view through the lens. It’s a more romantic view of the scene. This is a very good illustration of the difference between a record of a scene and the way the photographer sees the scene. Very well done, Cardinal.