Little Blue Heron

[Don Jacobs]

I took this shot last weekend using the 1DIV, 600/4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 1000, 1/1600, F/7.1 tripod and gimbal head. I really like how the light reflects off the pads but wish the water in front of the heron had been clear as I had a chance to get a real nice reflection. C&C greatly appreciated.

[Diane Miller]

It would have been wonderful to get a full reflection, but you take what you're given. I've shot LBH's where there wasn't much detail in the feathers -- maybe they're just streamlined. You have some detail here to work with and might be able to bring out more with Nik's Detail Extractor or the like. The detail in the BG does compete with the bird a lot. I wonder how it would look to reduce the red in the BG, to make it recede a bit?

A lower angle would help, but not always possible.

Looking at the "horizon line" of the lilly pads, a slight CCW rotation might be suggested.

[Svante Larsson]

You really get a feel for the hunting mood of the bird. Still I think the image would have gained on a better head angle with more eye contact. I also agree with Diane on the lower angle (I always struggle myself with achieving this) and the CCW rotation.

[Jim Keener]

For me, the angle works. I like that the background is apparent — a bit of a Monet look. How the red in the pads is lightly reflected in the red touches on the bird's neck. The concentration of the heron and the stiff muscularity of the neck add a tension to balance the beauty of the feathers. It might be just the effect of modification when uploading, but is there some noise in the background?

[Iain Barker]

Hi Don

A better head angle would be nice but I think the angle you have captured also show nice behavior. I also don't mind the angle which shows the environment well.
The main issue for me is the rotation which is easily fixed.

Iain

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Don... I love birds/environment.... and I would hope that a bird looking for prey would be oblivious to the camera...so the HA doesn't bother me a bit. A bit of CCW rotation wouldn't hurt since the vegetation has some strong horizontall-ness (is that a word?) going on. I did a "scroll crop" and eliminated the reflected body of the Heron, since it was fairly predominant, but separate from the subject, even tho at the bottom... then it seemed that better focus was on the main bird as well as just the reflection of the head.... what do you think?