Great Egret and Tiny Wriggling Fish.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This elegant Great Egret must have eaten 12-15 fish while I observed it lying down in the comfort of the rocky and mucky shoreline, concealed in some marsh vegetation - these guys up here are just not as approachable as southern individuals! It was rather windy that day and the lily pads were flipping over, sometimes obscuring the subjects legs but at times in a good spot.

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/5.6, ISO 1600, natural light, handheld, cropped to about 75% FF, darkened the bottom edge and some of the brighter lily pad bottoms (both via the burn tool, and then the sponge tool to restore saturation).

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice image, Daniel. Great timing to catch it with the fish. I like the environment around the bird, makes for a nice composition. Yup, a common bird here but with our 1.5 million alligators in the state I do not think it wise to lay down here for that nice low POV. Thank you for sharing.

[Mike Poole]

I love the low environmental aspect here Dn, and obviously the fish is a huge bonus.

It's rare I'd comment on your processing, but do you think the whites could be a bit whiter here? They look just a tad grey to me.

Mike

[David Salem]

Nice looking frame Daniel. I like the pose as it catches a fish and the natural habitat looks the part very well and I like the raised Lilly pad. I like the green of the lores matching the BG. Well done

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

I like the clean separation of neck and bottom, the curves, fish, flying drops, shooting angle.
I might have been tempted to trade a bit of shutter speed for lower ISO, but perhaps you were doing some fast action shooting as well.

It worked out well.

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys!

Randy, you are correct - I was setup to catch the "fish flips" it was doing when gulping down the food :-)

[gail bisson]

I never worry about the ISO when I am shooting a white bird. Hard to get noise in a white bird.
I really like the POV here. I feel like I am hiding in the weeds with you or in a submarine looking out the periscope at the unsuspecting quarry!
I really like the wiggly fish and the water and mud drops and I really like that one lily pad in front of the egret. It reminds me of a fan and I find it very appealing.
Good IQ.
I looked at the whites after reading Isaac's comment. I did not notice any grey initially but do see what he sees. it may just be the light quality you had.
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

love the low angle and the display of the environment Dan!