I was cycling along the towpath and could see about 100 gulls ahead all waiting on the River bank (are these gulls? I've never been much of an ornithologist).  There was no-one else around and an idea quickly hatched that I would run up to the birds, scare them all into flight and get some dramatic national geographic-esque shots of Birds in Flight. 

Easier said than done, plus I hadn't really thought it through.  I ditched my bike, got out the camera and started briskly walking towards the gulls, sure enough the first few started to fly-off but by the time I had sorted the camera they were already settled on the opposite bank.  No problem, still quite a few left to get those shots I was hoping for.  I started walking forward now with my camera in position, this meant I wasn't quite so brisk and the gulls just casually flew-off one-by-one to the opposite bank.  Not at all the mass hysteria I had planned wished to create...  this continued until the last of the gulls was on the opposite bank.

On returning home and loading my shots the my computer the best I had is this shot; it's a quarter crop from the original and not really what I was after, but on turning it into a black & white and toying with a few of the adjustment bars in Photoshop I've decided to post it here.

I've been thinking about this, and in hindsight I think you would need another person to run-up fast behind the gulls to scare them all at once while you were all set-up ready to shoot - it's a two man job.

Finally, if you are interested, Time magazine has just released their Best Photographs of 2006 - they are all a bit bleak IMO.

Galleries: Nature