Green Heron

[Chris Starbuck]

Canon 20D, Canon 100-400 IS at 400mm, ISO 400, evaluative metering -0.7, Av 1/250 at f/8, handheld, overcast light
ACR: adjusted white balance
PSCS2: contrast increased

This wild, unrestrained bird was fishing at one of the ponds at the St. Louis Zoo one overcast August morning. He was completely unconcerned about my presence less than 15 feet away. I liked this head-and-shoulders portrait best because it excluded the concrete bench he was standing on.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Chris,

This is a very nice portrait. I would clone out the spider web and run the image with a NR software. But a fine portrait as it is.

[Cindy Cone]

Beautiful portrait of the green heron! I agree with the suggestions by Maxis.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the light the colors and details!
My only nit is that the BG is little noisy

[Fabs Forns]

Wonderful portrait and colors. Nits have been covered, love the detail in the plumage and the face :)

[Chris Starbuck]

Thanks to all for your comments. I got sloppy about the noise in this one:o; a quick tweak in ACR pretty well eliminates it. The bit of web on the beak is easy to get rid of too.