Winter Great Blue Heron Head Shot

[Don Nelson]

At 19F the bird has fluffed its feathers up to trap air while it follows a mouse in a snowy field.
400mm f/4DO + TC 1.4 III, handheld, f11 @ 1/320, No EC. ISO 800, 1DsMIV, No flash. 10.5m to focus. Full frame. Too bad the bird didn't take better care of its beak. And its not looking at me as its following dinner in the grass. I've tried cropping a bit off the left side but returned to full frame image85791. Comments welcome.

[Don Nelson]

The alternate crop -- which one do you prefer? Why?
85792

[Dumay de Boulle]

I prefer the second crop..But the head angle is not ideal a touch too much away from you and Bg is a touch busy... also maybe a touch over sharpened on the head as the feathers on the body look a lot better...TFS Don!

[Randy Stout]

Don:

Always interesting to see the GBH in what I consider atypical environment for him (snow)
The bird is very well exposed, and the side lighting really gives more dimension to him because of the shadows.

Good points by Dumay re: angle in frame and sharpening.

I generally would prefer more room to the left to allow him to have space to peer into, esp. since he is looking away, but I find the overall balance of the image better in the second crop, so would lean towards that one.

Cheers

Randy

[Chris Martinez]

I like the composition in the original post. Knowing the story, I like that the bird has room to look for his/her mouse and that the light is coming from that direction.

[Chad Caswell]

First for me too, nice job on the exposure, In the last couple years I have seen on a couple different accounts GBH in the snow, very neat to see them sticking around.

[Paul Guris]

I'll vote for the first one, though there's nothing bad about either. The grass in the first one seems to be less obvious. I'd be interested to know if the plumage really is sharpened a bit too much, or if this is just the quality of the photo. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's the latter.

FYI, birds' bills shed. That's how Puffins start with smallish bills and eventually get bigger ones. The scuffing you see is probably due to that and not any damage. For me, it actually adds some interest since it seems that many photographers concentrate on the "pretty" birds. I have some clean feeder shots of American Goldfinch in absolutely horrific plumage that I really like a lot.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Don , I like the perspective in the first post almost as if we are on its shoulder whilst hunting prey. I also like the background grasses, defenition and lovely light. I agree with a little less sharpening as mentioned.

[Don Nelson]

Paul
You are correct - sharp to start with. The entire bird got just a little sharpening over the entire bird just before making the small jpeg posted. Nothing special in sharpening the head vs the body

All
Thanks for the comments. Nothing I could do about HA - it wasn't interested in me, only its meal which it took a moment later.