Grey Heron in the rain

[Aditya Sridhar]

This image was photographed at the Kensington Gardens, London. It was raining heavily but thankfully, the heron stood still while I fired off dozens of frames. I chose to go with a slow shutter speed to get the trails of water instead of using a fast shutter speed to freeze the rain (the drops were too distracting for my taste). The image was processed in Capture 1 Pro and Photoshop. No cloning or manipulation was done.

Camera - Nikon D850
Focal Length - 500mm
Aperture - f/10
Shutter Speed - 1/50s
ISO - 320
Handheld
Manual, Auto ISO
Crop - 80-85% of full-frame

All CC and comments are appreciated :bg3:

[John Mack]

Always love a good rain shot. Nice composition and pose on the heron. I would have made the streaks a little shorter. But this is still nice.

[Alex Becker]

Great setting here. I like the BG, rain streaks, pose and detail on the bird. Would love a little bit more of the bird and less on top if you have it. Good exposure and DOF. TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

I really like the mood in this shot; he really doesn't look happy to be out in the rain! Exposure and detail are good, and I like the long rain trails. If you're gonna do it, go for it, right? I might move the subject right just a bit, but that's more
personal preference than anything else. BG pattern adds interest without distracting and helps highlight the rain streaks.

[dankearl]

I think you did the rain about as well as any rain photo I have seen...
Hard to do well, nice work.