American Bittern

[Don Lacy]

Wonderful new site you guys have started here I am looking forward to posting and hopefully growing as a photographer. This image was made at Viera the other day and I am interested if people feel the BG is too distracting.

30D, 500 f/4 IS, 1/1600 @ f/4, aperture priority, evaluative metered +1/3, ISO 400, raw, cropped to about 80% of original and slight blur applied to BG

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Don and welcome to BPN.

I have to agree with you, the BG is too busy. With that said, I think you did a good job with the exposure and composition. These guys are not easy to capture in the open. Nice to have you and keep posting!

Thanks!

[Judd Patterson]

Nice image Don. To me a solid background never looks right for this species, so this looks fine. The biggest distraction in my mind is that one dominant blade of grass that is lying down and cutting behind the bittern horizontally (around eye level). Just changing your angle a bit to lower that blade of grass would have been nice. Still, just to get a clear view of the front of the bird is a treat. Nice work!

[Larry Hitchens]

Don,
Nice job, I too posted an American Bittern today so I can appreciate the difficulty in just seeing one of these much less photographing it so nicely. The background may be a bit busy but you should be commended for getting such a nice
shot of a difficult bird.
Larry Hitchens

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Hi Don a very elusive species to photograph and you did a fine job getting it out in the open. I do agree about that one blade of grass. If it could be cloned out you would have a much stronger image. Thanks for posting.