Black-crowned Night-Heron

[William Malacarne]

I had a couple with better HA, but they did not show his pony tail....:)

Bill

Taken at: Bonelli Regional Park
Camera: Canon 5D MKII
Lens: Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM+1.4x
Time: 09/02/09 @ 08:01:54
Focal length: 420 mm
Exposure Program: AV
ISO: 1600
Shutter: 1/2000 sec.
F stop: f/5.6
Exposure Bias: +0.33
Metering Mode: Pattern

[Lance Peters]

Hi William - Not sure what the HAP are going to say about this one ;)
Like the perch.
Seems to be quite a bit of loss of detail in the birds plumage - looking like you might have used some aggressive NR on the entire image - basing this on the fact at 1600ISO would expect to see more noise in this from the 50D.
IMHO - Noise is better than loss of detail :) You had shutter speed to burn - would have dropped the ISO back some.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Bill,
I like the capture and candid pose...I agree with Mr. Peters on the loss of details in the tail feathers...as far as the head angle, I would have liked to have seen the bird looking at you, but in this case, lets just say that you captured him looking at something that held his attention...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Agree with Lance's techs Bill. But I like the pose and do not mind the bird looking away. I love the eye and the feather at the back.

[Dave Leroy]

It is a unigue pose and I find it quite interesting. It shows off the over all colours and "composition" of the bird from the back. It looks sort of like a butler seen in old movies. Nice composition to the photo also. I also wondered about the high ISO/shutter speed combination. Good one. Dave

[William Malacarne]

I think the feather detail was lost due to this being a pretty large crop. Lance I am using a 5D not a 50D, so noise is not real bad at ISO 1600. If I recall correctly the noise was only ran on background and not on the bird.
Thank you all very much for the comments.
Bill

[Kyle Marie Barcelos]

I would of like the bird's body turned a little more but w/the head still looking to the side so you can still see the ponytail :) The picture seem a little soft on my screen, but like you said it was a big crop, can't wait to see the next one. :)

[Ben Egbert]

Nice shot. Love the background and pose, HA not a problem for me. It does look like a bit of back focus, the eye and beak are sharp,but the back of the bird as well as the feet seem OOF. You can see the dof fading fast as you get closer.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bill other things aside I love this image .... IMO its one of the times you can go against the HA, bird is well position and is looking at something beyond the frame !!! Big Congrats on this one !!!!