outdoorswithcamera

Composite photographs sometimes unintended

I have recently returned from a series of four trips, or three plus a major stop. I invite you to my latest WilcePhotos blog post for more information

For you, here and now, I offer an image I love, in part because it sort of invented itself.

Wha you see here is an image I shot during the last of my four trips— the major stop actually. On Jan. 20, 2026, I was on the Bill Williams River, a tributary of the Colorado, at Buckskin Mountain State Park.

The sun was just rising over the high canyon walls. I was so happy, photographing ducks and gulls, plus a few other waterfowl.

Back home, I was trying to enhance the quality of several photos I shot that day, hoping to layer or laminate three into one high quality final.

But I was tricked— Lightroom’s Photo Merge layered the three images, but not on top of each other but horizontally, as the bird flies, so to speak.

Looking at the wings of the three sub-images shows their motion. You wouldn’t think it was a photograph of one bird.

But it is, and others like it appear in my “Composites and Digital Art” gallery, part of my WilcePhotos website.

(Notice the “Hummingbird Flight” and “Phoebe Composite”)

If you like the composite seagull image, but want to obtain a higher resolution version— as a digital download or print—take advantage of the shopping button when you enter the Composites gallery. OR JUST “LIKE” ANY OF THE IMAGES THERE!