As wonderful as birds and waves may be as subjects for my photography, they usually don't take direction.  So it's unusual to have a chance to take a picture of perfect birds and perfect waves together.  I took this picture on the same evening that I had climbed down to Vaill Beach and gotten the photograph named "Last Light, Vaill Beach."  This particular picture was the main reason I was worrying about getting stuck in the incoming tide.  I just couldn't leave the scene with all the excellent things that were happening.  The birds kept looping around and flying near these waves, and I was saying, "Oh please oh please oh please, come down just a little bit farther."   And then they came down, which is how I named this picture.  The color version of this picture is mostly soft melons and yellows.  I liked it but after quite a bit of waffling, I decided on the black and white version. 

Sometimes I give something up in order to show the most important things about a picture.  This time I gave up the color.  It was the right thing to do, according to my eyes, and I'm not sure how to explain it.  Maybe part of it is that the orange waves were so unusual that the color was a distraction.  The one named "Last Light" was taken on the same evening on the way back, after I had cleared the area where the tide could have cut me off, when the light had gone to a deeper palette.