Morning Wader - III - Final Act

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I wanted to show a natural horizontal crop, same tech and setting's as prior two pictures. If you have already provided feedback no need to respond. Thank you for looking and as always, all comments appreciated. I am here to improve and need all the help I can get.

As you can see, the Great Egret caught a small snack. I noticed they do not have the fishing skills of the Blue Herons.

In this mage, I added a bit of fill light and warmed the W/B a tad to accent the early fall colors.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jeff - would love to see the action close up - lots of fun these guys when they are fishing and you can get quite close when they are busy catching food.

Keep em coming :)

[Gus Cobos]

Well done Jeff,
I like it as presented...good action here...the background is sweet...:cool:

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Lance, I agree. The plight of the photographer with a 400MM who spots a Great Egret fishing in the morning and hopes he will come towards the shore line. In this case, he did not, in truth he was a bit beyond the reach of the 400MM (probably 70 feet from shore-line) even with tripod and a gentle crop I could not get in close. The colors were so beautiful and I like the blurry reflection others may not - so it goes.

[Lance Peters]

Yes Jeff - one thing matters in the end--- You like it and had fun doing it!!!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

So true, it was a blast. I started shooting at 7:00 and hung in there for 2.5 hours. He was beautiful and a challenge from an exposure perspective. Dark background and white bird in foreground. The distance made it impossible to spot meter and I used almost -2.0 EV to hold it all together. The dark BG kept the meter open as well - yes it was fun.

I rewarded myself by reviewing the pictures over a nice lunch, I had chicken not fish. Thanks for your support. Just downloaded Photomatrix, Al said it is addictive.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Hope the Great Egret comes closer to you next time, the green reflection from tree/bush are very beautiful. Wish that the black line of wave wasn't so near to the Egret. The water droplets give the feeing of Egret just snatch the fish up.

Photomatrix, welcome to the world of HDR.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jeff I like the composition showing lots of water and placing the bird in the UR Processing looks good

.... btw these guys fish differently from the GBH which prefer to spear the catch !!!

[Connie Mier]

I like to see a lot of surrounding around a white bird when the mangroves are reflecting in the water, so I do like that effect here. I would crop some bottom off to give it more of a pano look. The lighting seems a bit harsh on the whites also.

[Gail Spitler]

It is sooo frustrating when everything is perfect except for the fact that the image is out of reach of the equipment. Guess that's why we have memories.
It is easy to see what was so attractive here. It is a lovely image.
Cheers
gail

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great capture Jeff. Love the colors and the blurred reflection.
Congrats

[Julian Mole]

Hi Jeff,

I like this a lot, the pose of the bird and it's reflection lend it to the horizontal presentation. The reflected colours of the background trees merge nicely into one one another and set a beautiful canvas for the white bird.

The only thing that distracts my eye is the dark line in the water to the left (possibly the trail of some waterfowl?).

For me this is the best of the three images.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I try and represent nature scenes as I see them. Maybe next time I can look for smoother water. You know how that goes, one takes the opportunities when presented, thanks for the kind words.

I also like this image too, I warmed the colors a bit, looks better to me.