POND HERON

[Harshad Barve]

Taken near lake at Aurangabad
This fellow landed so close to me in search of food , so could not get him full.
Widespread resident unrecorded in NW & NE. Whitish wings contrast with dark saddle. Inland & costal wetlands.

Made with D300 / 600mm VR II + 1.7X extender / ISO 200 / F 6.7 with No Flash.

All C & C most welcome

Harshad

[Juan Aragonés]

The light is a bit intense but you did a good job with the light angle because the shadows are not very strong. The BG color is very nice but too bad that the pattern of the bG is a bit distracting. Fortunately th eegret is well isolated from the BG. In my opinio, composition can be improved going for a different croping, more focused on the head and neck, something like a portrait. The half body adds nothing to the composition and reinforces the feeling that the bird is croped. :-)

[Harshad Barve]

Thanks Juan for all inputs,

Is this is crop which you were suggesting, Pl let me know

Harshad

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Harshad

I like the second crop .. just a little less !! Would probably start right behind the start of the neck.
The bg you can select and apply some Gaussian blur for smoothing .. not much since it tends to look unnatural. btw one suggestion ... try bumping up your ISO The D300 performs well and could use the extra shutter speed !!!