Tricolored Heron hunting behaviour.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This guy was actively hunting non-stop mere feet from us for at least a good half hour. Many, many awesome poses were offered - hard to chose the best ones. I like this one for the "canopy" created by its wing above its head.

This heron uses his wings to create shadows in the water - thus luring in small fish that it then easily picks up with striking speed and precision. Very entertaining to watch as it prances and dances in a start-stop manner and waves its wings wide open.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @180mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/6.3, ISO 800 (techs histogram checked), handheld, about 80% FF.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

It was a great morning, despite the cool rain! I have pondered which pose to work on as well, and the head merging with the wing was a question in many of the poses. I think this is a good choice.

The high key effect accentuates the impact of the shadow, which is important in this behaviour.

Like the eye color and purple wash on the neck.

Cheers

Randy

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Great pose of course but to me the somewhat high-key effect doesn't do it here. It looks more washed out - on my calibrated macbook pro screen. :c3:

JR

[Stu Bowie]

Dan, the high key in this works so well, and I like the wingspread 'umbrella' pose. Great image design to show the reflection too. I like this lots. Well done.

[Pieter de Waal]

Daniel so nice to see a fresh approach and I do like the effect created in this image. Nice pose and subdued colours with good compoition to include the shadow.

[James Salywoda]

Gorgeous pose captured Daniel awesome shot. I think this could use a midtone adjustment as it looks a touch washed out on my calibrated monitor.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Daniel, loved the pose and the reflection. shooting birds at 180mm must be so much fun :-)

[Bill Dix]

Terrific shot, Daniel. I've watched this behavior but never seen it captured so well. My first reaction was that it seemed a bit washed out. I like high-key shots, but maybe a little mid-tone boost in the bird would help. Sounds like a matter of personal preference.

[Greg Basco]

Daniel, I like this quite a bit. When I go high-key, I'm actually looking for a bit of that washed-out look, so it looks good on my monitor. Nonetheless, I'm sure it would be interesting to try adjusting the midtones a bit as James suggested.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Andrew McLachlan]

Daniel, love the pose and the high-key look too. These birds are lots of fun. I shot many a few years ago on Cayo Guillermo in Cuba. I wish we had them up here!

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Love the high-key. Simple is better for me (go figure... :bg3:).

Mikko