Gloria Grandolini
July 2026 - Roman Gull
About the Image(s)
This month’s photo is taken with an iPhone 17 Pro Max. I had no camera as I flew to Rome for a medical emergency. Very sadly my younger sister passed away on May 29.
I did not want to miss a second month, so I took this shot of a Mediterranean yellow-legged gull.
He was scavenging daily the breakfast tables in the terrace of the hotel.
I could not get it in action snatching a cornetto, but in this image I tried to show clearly the characteristic physical features: pale grey back, a large yellow bill with a red spot on the lowermandible, a pale eye surrounded by a red eye ring, and bright yellow legs.
I sharpened it with Topaz photo and adjusted exposure
and blurred a bit the background with Lightroom.
IPhone 17 Pro Max
16.89mm back triple camera lens
1/160 f/2.8 ISO 40 handheld
12 comments posted
You are a trooper to keep up with your submission here. You certainly achieved your goals of characterizing this gull's physical features. Since you have access to Lightroom, I can offer a suggestion to make this bird's features stand out further. (Sorry I can't upload an example as I'm traveling out west and don't have access to LR at the moment). My suggestion would be to Mask the background and lower the exposure and tone down highlights a bit. Then mask your bird and slightly lighten, as your current background is so warm and bright it detracts from the simple beauty of this beautiful gull. But you've got a really nice shot of this gull, Gloria! Posted: 07/01/2026 06:23:26
I think the crop is a little tight not giving the bird space to move into, and yes; I agree with Grace that reducing the brightness of the background would take away some of the distraction. The bird is sharp. Posted: 07/06/2026 17:10:32
Your image is nice and sharp and a good record shot. My personal recommendation will be to allow more space in the front of the bird and to rotate the image horizontally . I often use my iphone 16 pro max to capture images in raw which allows a lot of post processing and fairly simple to adjust the bright background.
Posted: 07/09/2026 07:37:45
Thanks for sharing
Posted: 07/12/2026 20:47:32
Amazing what cell phones can do these days. I think very soon one can do many edits with in the software provided on the cell phone and not have to go to third party software.
Posted: 07/14/2026 17:30:44