Great Blue Heron Puttin' On The Ritz

[Eve Turek]

Took this Great Blue Heron on the Sanibel Causeway, headed to Ding Darling NWR for our last afternoon in SW FL this past January. Even in memory I continue to be amazed how close we could get to birds in general there; birds on the Outer Banks tend to be more skittish. I loved the long strut as it walked the shoreline.
Camera/Equipment: Nikon D300/80-400 VR/hand-held
Camera Settings: 1/500 at f/8 +1 ISO 400 400 mm
Thoughts???
Thanks, Eve
P.S. Hand-held, since I had no usable tripod at the time, but a discontinued Gitzo 1325 just arrived at the house, along with a used Wimberly!! Yippee!!
www.yellowhousegallery.com (http://www.yellowhousegallery.com)

[RichardCurtin]

Unusual pose - reallly stretched. The forefoot still in the air adds some action. I tried darkening the background to give a little more texture and burning in the foreground some. Just another alternative. Good luck with the tripod/Wimberly.

[Harold Davis]

hi eve, welcome to BPN!! that's a great looking GBH!! i like the pose too. i like what richard was doing with the bg. if you could darken it just a tad without changing the exposure on the bird, i think the bird would really pop. congrats on the image and cant wait to see more!!

[Alfred Forns]

Big Welcome Eve !!!! Glad the birds cooperated with you Some do have a tendency to be tame !!!!!

Love that strut walk and also that you got him before he was past your position Must have had very soft light for going +1 ? Whites are right at the edge of going over !!! Do like the light feel to the image but would just darken a bit and take a bit of the bottom to accentuate the forward motion !!! There might be a slight cast Will check !! Looking forward to many more !!! ...love the Outer Banks !!!!

Cropped from bottom, reduced the cast, added black for the neutral/black in selective color and a slight curves boost

[Eve Turek]

Thanks so much to all for your suggestions! I am profoundly grateful to have found this forum. Indeed I plan to be a regular! I love the darkening -- the light was soft, and the water (which is a little darker in my print, but not as much "pop" as you all achieved, thank you, thank you) was a pale green, almost the color of old window glass..I'll post another of the same bird, taken at a different angle so you can see what I mean about the green. Thanks so much again! Eve

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Eve Sorry I didn't get to the image last night but here it is 100% balanced There is no color cast

Just cropped some of the bottom, added a bit of canvas to the front for strutting space and increased density a tad (those are highly technical terms !!!!)

[Harold Davis]

Al, when you say color balance, can that be achieved by shooting a grey card o,r in PP establishing the black white or neutral control points?

thanks

H

[Alfred Forns]

I mean no color casts at all !!!! Using a grey card would be ideal When I was using film and printing it was the way to go Best reference you could use !!!

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Welcome Eve. Indeed a very nice pose. Like the head angle. Al did an excellent job on your shot.
Congrats,