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John Rowell
05-04-2014, 10:01 AM
140639
Taken at Ft. DeSoto last month. D4, 600 mm+1.4 telextender, 1/800 sec @f5.6, iso 800. This heron was suddenly alerted to something and those head feathers just stood right up for a few seconds. The area to the left of the bird was all dark sand which I didn't like, so I've moved grass from the right of the original image over to the left for balance. Shot horizontally, the crop is full image on the vertical. Comments always welcome, thanks for looking.
Marina Scarr
05-04-2014, 10:56 AM
This is really a fun image, John. I have never seen the YCNH with its crown completely up like this. Details, exposure and angle look good!
Andy Shepherd
05-04-2014, 12:49 PM
What an awesome looking bird, John. Love the raised crest and that beautiful orange eye really captures your attention. Fine feather detail is right up there and the natural setting works well.

There seems to be some sort of Blue/Purple Artefact running throughout the BG, I'm not to sure what has caused it, but I'm quite sure someone here will have the answer.
Raymond Lee
05-04-2014, 01:15 PM
Great looking bird! Love the raised crest as well! Details, exposure, and composition are all good. I also noticed the artifacts in the shadow areas in the BG; may be it's from the noise?
John Rowell
05-04-2014, 01:18 PM
Marina and Andy, thanks for your kind comments.

Marina, I was all the way at the back end of the North Beach lagoon and was beginning to wonder why I'd worked my way up there when this happened. I'd never seen it before either, but ended up glad to have made the effort.

Andy, you're right about the artifacts. They are not in either the RAW or full size TIF, so I can only assume that they arrived during compression into the web sized JPG. Seems to me to be a classic example of that oft overlooked computer problem . . . operator error!
Karl Egressy
05-04-2014, 05:17 PM
Love the pose and the details are excellent.
Daniel Cadieux
05-04-2014, 05:30 PM
That is a crazy pose you got from this fella!! A first for me, too. Good vertical comp, you cropped the image well...and the processing to move that vegetation to the left is seamless.