Night Heron

[Roman Kurywczak]

This was taken in March at Venice rookery. I was really concentrating on the Night Herons as I didn't have one flying. I liked the greenery reflected in the water......but was it too much? Do I need to blur it more? I'd appreciate your thoughts and opinions.
Canon 1D Mark lll with the Sigma 300-800 @ 572mm at ISO 800 and f7.1 and 1/2500 sec. Slight crop all around from FF.

[Doug Brown]

Love the pose, exposure, and sharpness. I'd like to see a bit more blur in the BG for comparison's sake.

[Tell Dickinson]

Hi Roman, for me the bg is perfectly ok :) My personal preference would be for a 'smidgen' more canvas left and top to take the bird just a touch more away from the edges, nice shot though anyway.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, light, details and the BG is blurred enough for my taste. I would give it more room though...as almost always. :)

[Scott Frye]

Background is ok with me as the heron pops off the page - -nicely done

[Bryan Erb]

Great capture, bird is nice and sharp, love the pose. BG looks fine to me.

[Randy Stout]

Roman:

Nice to see you going to the birds! I really enjoy this image, esp. because of the pose you captured. These guys often look rather short and dumpy, because of the way they sit, rather hunched over. This really shows off his torso well.

I like the degree of background blur. I did make a little tweak on the brightness of the background. I subtly lowered the brightness, which to my eye makes the bird pop even more, without looking flashed or over done.

It may be too subtle to show in the web sized images, but you might want to try it at home.

Just a thought.

Cheers

Randy

PS: Typical Roman crop!

[Ramon M. Casares]

Powerfull Pose, nice BG, great light, good level of detail, nice bird atitude, good comp and color. Congratulations!

[Steve Maxson]

A great pose,Roman - I really like the puffed up crown and the 2 extended white plumes. I like the subtle change in Randy's repost and I'm OK with the level of blur in the background. Well done.

[Stu Bowie]

I like the posture, light, detail and colours in this. Great eye, and the BG is just fine with me.

[Juan Aragonés]

Very go job with this BCNH Roman. Love the light, action and the SUPERB eye contact. I like Randy´s suggestions of toning doen the BG just a bit. :-)

[Steve Canuel]

Neat shot. A different look than most in flight captures of these. The pose is excellent.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Lovely posture and sharpness! I like Randy's adjustment on the background, its subtle but it certainly makes the bird pop more. Great image:-)