Bosque Bittern

[gary rouleau]

Its hard enough to see a Bittern, I spotted this one at the Bosque del Apache NM. The surprise was that there were two. Unfortunately I couldn't get both together in a shot. The other surprise was they were not afraid they walked to within three feet of me. Here's my shot as one walked towards me. I posted a head shot the other day.
Canon markIIN
600mm + 1.4x
iso 400 at 6.3
1/1000sec ex comp -.03

I wasn't sure the best way to crop it.
Cheers
gary

[Dan Elster]

I think a bit of contrast and sharpening may improve this image. I'm much more tolerant than a lot of people about "busy" backrounds, but there is a lot of stuff competing w/ the bird for a viewers attention here. All that being said, it's better than anything I have on this species.

[gary rouleau]

I agree with you Dan. Maybe I should crop out just the Bittern and the reflection.

[Rachel Bilodeau]

to me, I find the bird does not detach itself easily from the busy background and there is a lot of elements in the water - I find the blue takes too much attention away from the bird itself - I personally would have opted for a vertical shot, cropping away some of the weeds on the left, to highlight the bird and its reflection and diminish the amount of colors in the image, keeping mostly shades of rust and beiges and blacks. The light is a little harsh also. I think that there was also a loss of details by using the 1.4 in this case.