Alcatraz Island has one of the largest Western Gull colonies on the Northern California Coast. Two of these gulls fly over the Cell House that once housed federal prisoners. Built by the US Army in 1912, the Cell House was once the largest steel-reinforced concrete building in the world and housed military prisoners until it became a federal prison in 1934. The prison was a place of incarceration. The gulls in flight are symbols of freedom. I composed this image to compare contrasts and similarities. The gulls in flight echo the forward and recessed facades of the prison, as well as the two poles that extend from the building. The building is large and brown, while the birds are small and white. Both the building and the birds thrust forward, and are aligned on the diagonal. How could I “arrange” the birds to fit so neatly into my composition? By anticipating what might happen, waiting, and shooting profusely. A number of gulls were nesting on the roof of the building, and were constantly coming and going. I found a vantage point creating this triangular block of space in the sky, and waited for the gulls to fly into and through it. I put my camera on “multiple” burst shooting, and held the shutter button down whenever multiple gulls flew through that triangular space of blue. The beautiful thing about digital imaging is that every shot is essentially free. I shot several hundred images over ten minutes and found ten that worked fairly well in terms of gull position, wing configuration, etc. This was the most expressive of them.