Yellow-crowned Night Heron

[Michael Lloyd]

EOS 1 DsMKIV Manual
800mm f5.6L IS hand held

ISO 200
1/160s@ f7.1

I shot this at 40 Acre Lake in Brazos Bend State Park yesterday. I had some work to do about 45 minutes from there so I tossed my gear into the truck as an afterthought. I'm glad that I did. Walking around 40 Acre Lake with the 800 on one shoulder and a 70-200 mounted to another body was a workout :D Most of the time the 800 was too long. A 600 or 500 would have given me more flexibility in composition.

[Bill Dix]

I like the pose and bg color. Good HH technique to get this with 800mm @ 1/160s. Might have considered boosting the ISO to buy a little more SS.

[Michael Lloyd]

Might have considered boosting the ISO to buy a little more SS.

I'm pretty confident in my hand holding ability. In the case of this image I was sitting and used my elbows on my knees to form a tripod of sorts. It seemed to work ok. Normally I would have at least had a monopod and at best a heavy tripod with Wimberly head... I forgot to throw them in the truck... it happens that way sometimes. :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Michael, loved the pose a lot. Couple of suggestions. the contrast seems a bit on the higher side. You might be able to pull out more details in the head from the RAW file. Image is a little on the softer side...camera shake? I think a round of USM on the bird can help a lot.

love these birds a lot.

[Dave Leroy]

I really like the composition with the inclusion of the bits of habitat.
I wonder if a bit of ccw rotation is needed. It could just be the slope of the ground as well or my eyes.
Nice colours as well.

[Katie Rupp]

I also love the pose and bg color and agree that a bit of ccw rotation is needed; I think it might benefit from some eye-sharpening. That said, I'd be very pleased to have this in my portfolio.