Grey heron

[RAM MALLYA]

My first sightings of this bird in our area

Shutter speed 1/5000
Aperture F/4
ISO 400
Lens 600MM L IS USM
Camera body 1D Mark II N
Tripod mounted

C&C welcome

[Randy Stout]

Ram:

Always fun to capture a new one.
Nice color in the BG, good shooting angle for a bird this tall.
The light angle was well off to your left, which gives some strong modeling effect from the shadows, but might show the bird off better if more over your shoulder.

Interesting bit of stick in water, My first thought was that it was a little cluttered, but it is growing on me, adds a bit of additional interest to the image. I would however consider cloning out the vertical , out of focus stub right at the bottom edge.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Ram, I like the pose and low angle of capture, and he's standing perfectly in the fork of the root. I agree with Randy to maybe remove the small vertical branch in the FG.

[Doug Brown]

To the above, I would add that I'd like to see room for the virtual legs in the frame. Also there appears to be some clone work to the left of the bird.

[RAM MALLYA]

Yeah Doug I had cloned off some distracting branches on the lower left corner of the image