Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Beach Photography

Seagulls, Smoke And The Coast Guard?

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Time to go back to the beach! Back to my July weekend photos that is. Given the high temperatures and smoke in the air you can chew, what better summer break than to revisit the cool, fresh breezes of sea air.

I always have fun taking pictures, but the beach is a wonderful place to grab sneaky pics of wildlife and people. So sit back and enjoy the gallery! Weather is going to change into the mid-70s by this weekend. I’m going to need my parka!

The Hot Pursuit fishing out of Depoe Bay in the morning fog on July 30th. Fog, what a nice thought.
Seagull posing for his close up. Love my zoom lens!
Seagull sentry on duty at his post. Literally. You can see the harbor seals lounging on the rocks in the background.
Don’t think this harbor seal really wanted a close-up, but when you’re cute, you’re cute!
Always good to see the Depoe Bay Coast Guard out enjoying a nice day. This crew was on patrol after high noon on Saturday, July 28th. Thank you Coast Guard!

Cranky Or Kind Seagull?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                      (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Back to the beach! Looking at my pics from our early August beach trip, I’m always surprised with what I see afterwards. Take this normal seagull. I took five pictures of him doing his feather cleaning and then a couple of him/her looking out to sea.

Five. Looking closer at the pictures when I got them on my computer, I noticed one photo of a nice, normal kind of happy looking seagull. Fluffy, pretty, bright colors.

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Normal seagull guy on the rocks. So to speak.

 

Then I looked at the other four and saw the feather cleaning shot, couldn’t see his/her face. Then when I looked closer at the final three, I spotted this. Cranky seagull. Or is that just my imagination?

Checked the rest of the photos and three of the five are cranky gull. It almost seems like he knows what I’m doing and he’s not happy being a victim of the paparazzi. Maybe he is a celebrity seagull?

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Cranky seagull! It’s the mouth right?

 

The best advice when taking photos is take as many as you want; you never know what will show up. When I went on a Europe camping trip for three months in 1983, I took 70 rolls of film; one for each day of the trip. Ended up selling a few rolls to my Autotours EX57 buddies, but I used most of them. When in doubt, take the photo.

Then be prepared for something to happen you couldn’t have arranged in a million years. Like this crazy person walking out onto the sea cliff across the bay from me at the same time a small boat was headed toward the harbor. Imagine!

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You cannot plan this stuff, so you have to be ready to take the photo.

 

If it had been earlier or later in the day, the lack of glaring sun would’ve made the colors deeper. But short of hiring people to stand out on rocks, we have to take what pops up in front of us. Literally.

So always be prepared with extra memory cards and backup batteries. There may be a cranky seagull in your future.

Photo on!