Black-crowned Night Heron: Juvenile in flight

[chris mayne]

Taken in the early morning light at Lake Hodges in San Diego, Ca. The background is the early morning sun reflecting off of a large hillside across the lake.
Comments and critiques are much appreciated.
1D MKIII
300 2.8 + 2X
1/500 f/5.6
Ex. comp +2/3
ISO 800

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great light, BG, sharpness and eye contact. I might put the bird a tad lower in the frame and remove the blueish cast on the wings.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful light, nice wing position, and excellent sharpness. I do wish the head were turned slightly towards you. I'd probably trim some canvas off the bottom and add some on the left.

[Harshad Barve]

Amazing shot to say atleast , Fantastic
TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Tack sharp, and this oozes with detail. Stunning light and colours, agree to move him down in the frame.

[chris mayne]

Thank you guys for the input. I added about a 1/2 inch to top, 1/4 inch back and shortened the space in front. Does that work better? By the blue cast did you mean the tips of the wings? They are on the raw image and I'm not sure if those are new wintips or what. I did clone them a bit to see how that looked. Thanks.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The composition looks good in the repost. The whites that look blueish are not sunlit. You could just try to decrease the blue saturation in those areas.

[Bryan Hix]

Excellent flight shot. I like the improvements made in the re-post. Nice BG.

[Steve Zamek]

This a beautiful flight portrait. There so much to look at and appreciate. Best for me is the wing position, which reveals so much subtle detail. I also like the similarity in color of the bird and background, which works for me because the bird is so sharp compared to the soft background. I like the composition of the 2nd post.

[chris mayne]

Got it, Axel. My wife, an oil painter, was more than eager to point the cast out to me. I'm a bit off on my color perception.

[Doug Brown]

Repost is a big improvement. I'd still be tempted to add more canvas on the left for more of a pano look.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

the repost looks better,great light/composition!

[D. Robert Franz]

Great light on this fine image

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice shot, love the colors, creamy BG and warm tones. eye tact sharp. I prefer the repost.

Thanks for sharing