Greenie on green...

[David Roach]

EOS R RF 70-200 @200 f2.8 1/500 ISO 500 HH, Manual EXP, cropped from vertical

This very green heron has been my nemesis for the past week. Every time I site this beauty and begin to get off bike, even though over 30 meters away, flying for sure... This evening, on the same limestone perch, concentrating hunter was facing away. So, I began army crawl right to waters edge within 4 meters from the perch. Now, born and raised in south Florida, I knew to also be on watch for submerged gators as they can mistake you for food if you are very low near waters edge. Every time I imaged a short burst of 3, I'd check the water. Well, right after the sequence with this image looked down and there about 1 foot under water and 2 meters away was a small gator (maybe 5 to 6 feet long) staring at me. I sat up and away he went along with my avian friend.

Thanks as always for valued inputs on previous posts. Please, keep them coming.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I would crop the image as reflection does not work well. This image needs clockwise rotation.
Head Angle is good.


Not a good idea crawling near Gators...

[Randy Stout]

David:

Like the pose, head angle, painterly water in the BG. Agree with Krishna about the CW rotation. The reflection could go either way for me, but to be more effective, it would need a little more space beneath the head, to balance out the large amount of space above the head. I would absolutely try a cropped version to see how you like it. I also like the rocky perch. I remember being on a golf course in Florida many years ago and having a gator crawl out of the water and size me up for lunch, so I wouldn't feel very comfortable crawling near the waters edge!

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi David, lovely Green Heron. The smoothed water provides a nice background. I would consider going with a 2x3 crop and eliminating the reflection of the bird. Thank you for sharing.

[Dorian Anderson]

The effect with the water is cool, and you certainly got the perfect head angle. But the crop is really awkward as is. If you have more room behind the bird, I would go with a 1.5x landscape crop which shows the reflection of the rock but not the bird. Something like this, but with more room behind (and maybe even in front if you have it).

187729

[John Mack]

Trying to get the reflection is nice. Im going to have to go with the others though.