Great Blue Heron with Snack

[Kurt Bowman]

Great Blue Heron with a little snack. Cropped to portrait from full body shot.

Sony a9ii, 200-600mm, 1.4 TC, 1/3200 at f/9, ISO 800

[Daniel Cadieux]

It's always fun to get the fish-flip! Even better when the fish's head, rather than the tail, is facing towards us. The small drops add some fun elements. Sharp. Good BG. I could see a version where the heron is not as forward in the frame as it is now (more in front, less behind than as posted). Pretty neat overall!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Kurt, good timing to catch the fish flip. Nice colors, sharp feather detail, good background. Maybe as Daniel suggested a little more room in front, I might also add some on the top. The white cheek of the heron should have more detail, it looks smooth on my display. Maybe the RAW file had more detail the can be coaxed out. I photograph a lot of Great Blue Herons in Florida, that area on the face most times controls the exposure. Thank you for sharing.

[David Roach]

Well caught for both of you. I like the way it fills the frame as is. Beautiful detail everywhere and sweet BG. TFS

[gail bisson]

Fantastic close-up. I agree with the guys re; a bit more room on the left (for the bird to look into) and try to tease out some more detail in the whites. When photographing these GBH in a tight portrait, Joe is absolutely correct in saying that the whites on the chin dictate the exposure. It is less important when you do a full body shot because that area becomes quite minuscule
relative to the entire frame.
Looking forward to your critiques of members images,
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

looks good, I like the framing as is, agree with toning down the whites to get more details. My only wish is that the fish's head/eyes we more visible ;)

TFS

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb action! Love the fish-flip and pose of the bird. Nice composition and details. Good angle of the fish with visible eye.

[Arthur Morris]

Lots of spot-on comments above. Good on getting the size right with this one :). Laser-razor sharp and held it held up nicely to the crop.

with love, artie

[Dorian Anderson]

Strong image Kurt! Fun action with excellent detail. More room at left and a bit of highlight recovery as others have noted. But a really fun frame!