Spearfishing Great Egret, Ardea alba

[adcolon]

This is more of a close-up than a macro. At the University of Puerto Rico's Botanical Gardens.

Canon 30D, Canon 100-400mm, ISO 200, f/5.0 at 1/1000sec., with Canon 580 Flash w/Better Beamer, handheld.

[Jim Poor]

Holy crap that looks like it hurt! Is this a crop / enlargement or the full frame? To call it "striking" would somewhat of an understatement (not to mention a pun). This is a really well done image.

Maybe clean up the noise in the BG and the oof highlight just left of the fishes tail.

[adcolon]

Hello. Yes, it is cropped. The original shows part of the neck of the Egret and there is a lot of useless space en the left. I had to react fast so I could not frame the action.

[Jim Poor]

I think you did great! I only asked about the crop because I wondered about moving the fish off center, but I think it works as is.

[Bernie Kasper]

Very impressive capture, it really illustrates the power and beauty of nature, great work.

[Robert O'Toole]

Wow very very nice! I dont think I have ever seen a bill speared fish close up and cropped like this before. I also like how the BG color and shapes match the birds bill.

This is my favorite image out of the posts I have seen. Good work.

So did the fish live?

Robert

[Mike Moats]

Hey adcolon, very cool image. Great timing and well done on the shot.

[Don Lacy]

Never seen a speared fish so close before, well done.

[John Cooper]

You did so well capturing this image Adcolon and the heavy crop still has adequate resolution. very well done!!

[adcolon]

Thank you very much. The fish lived long enough to feed the Egret. The bird flipped him in the air and in he went, after a bit of a struggle. Later I will upload one when he catches 3 fish at once !!!

[Jeroen Stel]

Ouch,...That's gotta hurt!
Very original image and a great achievement capturing this so close!

Well done!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

[adcolon]

Thanks for all the comments !!