AMERICAN BITTERN

[gary ellwein]

I encountered this elusive bird in Minnesota this spring. I was fortunate to get a relatively clean bg. I selectively used Nik CEP4 Tonal Contrast and Detail Extractor on the bird. A mild texture was applied to the bg. I intended to submit this as part of the Summer theme.

[Paul Lagasi]

Good placement of the bird in image, a tough bird to see out in the open. Nice and sharp, love the graphic effect to this. Well done

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Hard to get them with a clean BG as they are a very secretive bird. I like the colour palette, and the great detail you have gotten in the feathers.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Gary, this must have been a perfect base image. Great detail. The only thing I'd change is I would eliminate the horizontal reed on the left edge that's pointing at the bittern.:S3:

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Gary, This is quite lovely; you made the most of a great chance as this is not an easy species to photograph. Your treatment is soft and pleasing. I love the black on the neck. Compositions like this are very difficult. You did pretty well but I think that pointing the camera down a few inches and maybe a bit more to the right would have improved the image design while showing us more of the bird. As presented, the negative space overpowers the bird. In addition, a bit more of that lovely green grass would have been a plus.

[Arthur Morris]

ps: I am thrilled that you and Lynn will be joining Denise and me next year on the Palouse IPT. Folks can scroll down here (http://www.birdsasart.com/include-pages/ipt-updates/) for details.

[gary ellwein]

Thanks to all for the look and comments.