Great Blue heron Preening

[Peter Farrell]

This GBH is a resident of a public park and not bothered much by people. I was on a pedestrian bridge facing the shore about 25 feet away from it.
Taken 7-28-09 in Newport News, VA.
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq128/peterf/BlueHeronPreening.jpg

Sony A700, Sigma 70-200f2.8 @200mm, f7.1, 1/320, iso800

[Kim Rollins]

Peter -

Nice capture here. It would be uncommon here to see one doing that close enough to get the capture as they are spooky wild when here.

I think I detect a slight green cast to the darks of this one and you might try a bit of color adustment something like this and see what you think (the screen shot is from CS4 but I am sure Elements has something similar) -

http://upload.pbase.com/kwr_01/image/120583636/large.jpg

[Daniel Cadieux]

Interesting preening pose here, and I like the individual plume strands. The head angle is not ideal - I'd prefer to see less of the top and more of the side (were you able to move left a bit?). Light direction was also not ideal coming from high above and behind the bird creating hot areas along the top of the neck. I would also have opened up the aperture to rendere the BG vegetion even more OOF. GBHs are easily spooked here too (except for an individual or two that show up at busy public parks) so you did well to approach it with a 200mm lens :).

[Aidan Briggs]

Daniel hit the nail on the head here. I might go for a slightly tighter crop. Niice preening pose, and sense of habitat.

[Allen Sparks]

Nice behavioral catch. I agree with the suggestion of moving to the left if possible to take this shot. The eye would have been more visible if you were able to do so.

[Peter Farrell]

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. I am really learning a lot from posting on this web site and will subscribe soon. I should give more explanation with my posts. This particular GBH is unusual for my area as well, most of them that I photograph spook pretty easy. Since I was on a pedestrian bridge when I took this image I had limited area to move. I understand about the head angle and eye contact and opening up the aperture comments and again appreciate them.
Peter

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I thought I'd add something, about the aperture. Although a smaller aperture indeed will allow a blurring, and consequently a less distracting background, the closer you are to the subject the greater the DOF you will actually need. The problem comes in if the bird was angled toward you, and the bill more or less in your direction. Generally you would want both the head and and rather long bill in focus, and it seems to me that F7.1 would be quite appropriate in that case. Also, as mentioned, the visibility of the eye is important. Good detail! regards~Bill