Bare-throated Tiger Heron in Riviera Maya

[IVAN GABALDON]

http://ivangabaldon.com/images/TigrisomaMexicanum.jpg

I observed and waited patiently until this Bare Throated Tiger Heron decided to take flight. I snapped a sequence of pictures of which I think this is the best.
Equipment was a Nikon D90 with Nikon 300mm/f4 AF-S lens, and Manfrotto monopod.
Open to all comments, thanks!
IGH

[Randy Stout]

Ivan:

A big welcome to BPN. It is a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer.

Quite a colorful scene. Your timing on the launch was very good. Great stretch as he blasts off.

For my taste the framing is too tight, he needs room to fly into, esp. in front, but a bit more room on top would be good as well.

The water looks oversaturated on first glance, but I don't know your area, so perhaps that is how it is.

He is angling just a bit away from us. Ideally a slight angle towards us makes the image more engaging.

An exciting first post, look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[IVAN GABALDON]

Hello Randy,

Thanks for your valuable observations.

I have been cropping into a square format as a way to unify images for the galleries in my bird photography blog. The framing in the original NEF file is indeed rather tight, although there is a bit more space to the left and top of the frame, and even more space to the right as the Heron was moving fast. The color of the water around here indeed is astonishingly blue, it's one of the beautiful things about the Mexican Caribbean.

I have just gone back to Aperture to look at the uncropped image and evaluate whether to post a corrected version. As there is more space to the right of the frame (and I do agree that any extra space should be to the left, for the Heron to fly into), the full frame feels a bit unbalanced, so I don't think it merits a new post.

Instead I'll start thinking about a follow-up post.

Again, your points are well taken, thank you!

IGH

[Christopher Miller]

Ivan, I love the take-off pose and bright colors. I agree with Randy's comments. I don't know if this would work, but you might want to try this tutorial for extending the canvas, Extending your canvas, made easy (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/41898-Extending-your-canvas-made-easy). What time of day was this taken? It looks like maybe the light was a little harsh, though not terrible.

[Humberto Ramos]

Welcome Ivan, I can't say nothing more, Randy said everything...
Just one thing, I started avian photography one and a half years ago, and I learn a lot here in BPN, so keep sending your images...

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto Randy on the good timing and a big time welcome but there are additional problems: image quality is poor, the head and neck of the bird are not in sharp focus, and the dark shoreline is a distraction. The square crop here is not advisable.

[IVAN GABALDON]

Thank you gentlemen for your critiques. I have been looking at your galleries and found them most inspiring, it's a privilege to be here and listen to your opinions and advice.

The tutorial on stretching the canvas is very well explained. I was familiar with this technique, having used it in other photographic genres (fashion, advertising). I feel it works best with truly soft backgrounds like the ones shown in the tutorial. I didn't think about using it here, could it be I'm being a bit too prudish about retouching nature images?. I'll give it a try and see how it works in this case.

The image's Metadata: ISO 500, 300mm, f/10, 1/1250. Oh, the time: 12:40 pm!!! Definitely not prime time for bird photography as light indeed was rather harsh and cenital. I am making a point of going out early in the morning or in the second half of the afternoon, but I guess I just couldn't hold myself that day.

Special thanks to Mr. Morris for welcoming me and for taking the time to review my image, I have been looking at your work for a long time now and truly admire it. Still I dare ask, could you be more specific with what you mean by "image quality is poor"? I just checked the image in Aperture and don't seem to find any problem with the focus. I'd be lying if I said the landscape feature on the top of the frame bothers me that much, I see it as a real landscape feature which is not directly behind the main subject and may even help to "close" the image a little from above. But having said that, I know your vision is highly evolved, so I'll definitely keep it in mind. :-)

Again, sincere thanks to all of you.

IGH

[IVAN GABALDON]

As I keep looking at so many wonderful images in this site I understand better Arthur's observation about focus (or lack of) in my Tiger Heron image posted here. I now realize that it may look "acceptable", but it surely isn't as tack sharp as it could (or should) be. Metadata shows the active focus area to be on some of the feathers on the left wing, not on the bird's head.
Point well taken, thanks again. :e3

IGH

[Arthur Morris]

Ivan, I am glad that you saw the light :S3: My poor image quality comments were in large part made because their seems to be nowhere on the bird that is in sharp focus; the head and neck seem to shimmer where they should be razor sharp. Thanks for being open to our comments. The extreme contrast also hurts the image as does the much too tight framing.

[IVAN GABALDON]

Thank you Arthur! I will post a second image and will of course remain open to all your comments, it's a great thing to be able to make birdphotographers.net part of my learning experience.

I have also continued reading other people's posts and looking at images, so much great info here!

Sincerely,

IGH

[Arthur Morris]

Ola!nnYou are on good path!