Goliath Heron

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Captured this uncommon resident last month in Botswana. They are seen either singly or in pairs, this one was on his own in a grassy water filled pan. They hunt in deeper water than other herons, and are larger than all other herons reaching 60 in. in height and have a wingspan from 6.1 - 7.5 ft. Quite impressive to see in person. C&C welcome.

D500, Sigma 150-600mm C @ 280mm, 1/2000, f 6.3, HH, ISO 3200.

Geoffrey




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[William Dickson]

Big bird. Thanks for posting this Geoffrey, I've never seen one before. I like the pose you captured and the colours on the bird. Very nice BG which makes for a natural looking image. The detail on the bird, seems to have suffered slightly, did you maybe add NR.

Will

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Big bird. Thanks for posting this Geoffrey, I've never seen one before. I like the pose you captured and the colours on the bird. Very nice BG which makes for a natural looking image. The detail on the bird, seems to have suffered slightly, did you maybe add NR.

Will

Hi William,

Thanks. Yes I did apply NR where it needed it and the toughest area was the thigh and just above in the lighter brown feathers.

I'll take another look and see if it can be tweaked a bit.

Geoffrey




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[John Mack]

Never seen or heard of one thanks for posting this. Wish the head wasn't so angles away from you.

[Bill Dix]

Good work catching this giant in flight (I missed him.) Tough to find just the right balance between NR and detail. I do see some smoothness on the bird, that's worth revisiting.

[Glenn Pure]

Nice work Geoffrey. The setting looks very much like my memory of the Okavango. Others have already noted the issues with detail. Definitely worth revisiting. Not sure what you use for NR but with the right tool (like Neat Image), detail need not suffer to any significant extent. Aside from that, the detail and tone on the underside looks good as well as the parts in full sun. Worth a little more work I think to extract the best from this shot.

[annmpacheco]

Hi Geoffrey, Ditto above on detail loss, what a giant bird! Love the colors and the water spray from the feet. TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Geoff, well timed for the take off, and the trailing droplets add. I would have maybe still taken a bit off the RHS behind the droplets, so as not to have the Goliath centrally placed. Yes, he is the largest of all the Herons, and a graceful flyer.