Talk about perfect lighting

I was trying to get some good shots of seagulls flying overhead at the beach Saturday, but they were never in the right light. Seagull photos in Florida are a dime-a-dozen, so I wanted to make the photo special somehow. I decided to attach my flash and put it in "tele" mode at full power for a direct burst of light.

I finally caught a shot of a gull overhead with the sun slightly behind him and the flash underneath.

It made for PERFECT lighting. The sun illuminated him in a way that made him appear to glow from within, and the flash gave enough light to his underside and brought out tons of detail. Be sure to click the image and view the larger version (if you're a Flickr member, that is).

This will probably be one of the few times in my life I use flash on a sunny, cloudless day in the middle of the afternoon aimed at a bird.

Camera Model: NIKON D50
Flash Used: Yes, Vivitar 285hv, full power, bare
Focal Length: 200.0mm
Exposure Time: 0.0005 s (1/2000)
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO equiv: 200
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)