Pre-dawn: Great Egret

[allanrube]

I went to Plum Island on Sunday. I stopped to take shots of this egret before the sun came up and was partially successful. The screws on the front of my tc get loose at times and when they do I get the f/0 syndrome. With one head I focused and pushed the lens/tc comb towards the body and did get some shots while others were just black frames.

Here is one that worked. D300 with 400 VR with 1.7 tc. Single point af 1/320 f 5.6 with +1 EV.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/394376529_STDyn-L.jpg

[Neil Losin]

What a sweet color! And a great capture of the action too. It's just a bit centered for my taste.

[Jasper Doest]

Although you made best of it with your loose screw the head looks slightly off focus. I love these pre-dawn photographs...and the new high ISO techniques enable us to use it with action photography just like you did here. Lovely atmosphere captured!

[Juan Aragonés]

I like a lot the composition, the action and the fantastic colors. the water splash adds a lot of action the scene. Very good job!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I would personally like a tighter crop, and the head area could use more sharpening. I do love the colours, reflection, and water splash...and I like the fact the eye is visible.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Amazing atmosphere, great action and well done on getting the eye in as well

[allanrube]

Thanks for the comments. I reworked it a bit per suggestions. I could only get the eyes "so sharp" due to teh problems I had while taking the photo.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/394701478_Nc9Nt-L-1.jpg

[Ramon M. Casares]

The original crop worked very well, maybe that wider crop with a pano format would've give a better not so tight feel, still GREAT shot! Congratyulaitons!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, I prefer the tighter crop but would place the egret a bit further to the left (but not too much).