Great Blue Heron With Armored Catfish

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Where wading birds are found is determined by the water level. This image was captured in one of the ponds at Circle B that was drying up from a period without rain. The long legged waders were able to walk in all areas of the pond. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, camera and lens supported by a monopod
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV -2/3 ISO 125 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 185mm
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Learn more about Circle B Bar Reserve in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link The BAA Middle of Florida Site Guide (https://birdsasart-shop.com/the-baa-middle-of-florida-photographic-site-guide/)

[David Roach]

Love the still water, reflection and pose. Action and prey with water telling the story puts it over the top for me. TFS

[Bretoteanu Dan]

I like the way the color of the water compliments the heron and the fact that its reflection is not crystal clear. And the water droplests from the beak and its intent look. Though I guess the catfish didnt like any of it.

[John Mack]

Love the blue water. Matches the bird very nicely. Crop a little from the bottom and right. Nice to see the fish.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like it! Beautiful scene in calm waters. I only wish the eye was not so distorted int he reflection, and I wish the bird was lower in the frame, but overall a neat bird-and-prey frame.

[kevin Hice]

Beautiful Joe yes could lose some off the bottom but I would take this any day beautiful water and prey tells the story well done. TFS

[Colin Driscoll]

Wonderful calm water and the blue is really nice.
Great reflection too. Maybe a little dodging of the catfish would show it better.

[gail bisson]

Great reflection and love that calm water.
A bit off the bottom would look better I think.
Heron looks great,
Gail

[Dorian Anderson]

Good looking shot with beautiful light and action. This is one instance where getting lower would not have helped with the reflection. The bird is too high in the frame, so I'd shift the crop down
if you have the canvas. You could also warm the frame a touch and maybe dial back the highlights a bit. Otherwise very nice.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting. A few have suggested taking some off the bottom of the image. Here are my thoughts regarding why I chose this view. Moving the bird and ripples up in the frame also moves the bird and ripples back in the frame. This gives the appearance of a lower POV, also taking some off the bottom would have centered the bird and ripples which most times I try to avoid. Thanks again...