Perhaps The Rainbow Was Over-Doing It

I RARELY take photographs for pleasure. My camera normally stays in my car’s boot until I need it to illustrate a feature – or I spot a potential addition to my stock library.

Shooting stock is a funny old thing, because photographs need to be stunning – and, unless you are working in a studio, you rarely find all the necessary elements coming together to produce that perfect shot. That was what happened to me on one of those rare occasions when I had my camera in my hand and spotted a seagull circling overhead.

I managed to fire-off half-a-dozen shots before the bird disappeared, and there was one in particular I liked. But it was just a standard seagull shot against a dull, blue-grey, cloudless sky.

I love Photoshop, and I love all those old darkroom tricks that it places at your fingertips; but producing a clean knockout, I find, can still be a bit of a pain – unless you have a clearly outlined subject and a plain, neutral, background.

I did not think much more about the seagull, until yesterday, when I was reviewing a series of ‘backgrounds’ that I had produced last month. Among them I had some decent cloud shots – and that was when I remembered the seagull.

I love it when a plan comes together…

Somewhere over the rainbow