Black Headed gull

Nearly a year ago I had put a post on the Black headed gull ( Larus ridibundus )at Fujairah, now these are from England. Like I said then, when in breeding plumage the bird acquires a brown hood. Now the bird in the second second is a young one and facing its first winter, unlike the first photograph, which is of an adult. You can see the difference in the beak and the dark brown carpal bar. Here in India it is a winter visitor and prior to every migration at the end of March they acquire the brown hood.

For the next 10 posts I'll posts 1 mistake each that I have knowingly made in photography. There are probably many more, but these still tend to happen
Mistake 1: Forgetting camera shake: I had the perfectly framed photograph, well exposed and well balanced. It looks good on the cameras 3 inch preview screen but when I uploaded it on my computer, I get the shocking news of the camera shake. In spite of the Image stabilization and all precautions to hold the camera sturdy, its very difficult to get a steady shot hand held especially when using telephoto lenses. Now I try to use a tripod as much as possible but if I cannot use one then the following tips can help.
1. Use a shutter speed of " 1/your camera focal length" or faster. Ex. if you are using a 300mm lense use a shutter speed of 1/300 sec or faster.
2. Hold the camera firmly with both hands, with hands close to the body and the camera touching your face.
3. Use any strong structure the lean on to or let the camera touch any sturdy structure and that will partly help.
4. Breath slowly and steadily.
For both the photographs above I could not use a tripod but the light was sufficient to use a faster shutter speed. the 1st one used a 1/250 sec and the 2nd one 1/200 sec shutter speed and I used a 200mm lens and achieved a relatively sharp image.