Little Blue Heron

[Michael Liskay]

This Little Blue Heron flew into a nearby tree while we were taking a beverage break at a local's house near Gandoca NP in southeastern Costa Rica last March. This was a great stop with numerous birds captured from the yard, plus Caiman in a nearby pond, a Pygmy KF, Howler monkeys with young ones on their back, Squirrel Cuckoo, etc.

Canon iD MkIV, 400 DO IS + 1.4TC, ISO 1250, f/10. 1/1250, 0EV. Processed in Aperture and CS5 with Nik plugins Viveza 2 (mainly to darken bright spots) and Color Efex Pro to darken/lighten edges/center.

[Cathy McEntee]

Beautiful shot--the image looks sharp (on my not too great work monitor). I probably would try to remove the leaves that are touching the bird.

[Richard Unsworth]

Nice short Michael, great color, agree on the leaves.

Gandoco Manzanillo is one of my favourite places, stayed for 2 weeks Villa Toucan, just up a steep road near El Refugio restaurante
great out there at night!! great snakes, spiders etc did you see any Great Potoo', saw loads in early October

[Tom Rambaut]

Lovley coloured bird - the leaf touching, or looking like it is touching the head is distracting. I would try and tone down the BG highlight area.

[Michael Liskay]

took the insightful observations/comments to heart, cleaned up a couple leaves and darkened the BG a bit. I now like it better! hope ya all do! Thanks !!:S3:

[Tom Rambaut]

Repost looks much better.

[Marina Scarr]

Nice details, angle and EXP on your bird. LIke the way you have framed him around the leaves. You may want to try to deSAT your greens just a tad to give your subject more attention. Although I love the greens here, they are very powerful.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Michael,
Repost does look better but and Marina' s suggestion is also worth exploring! Nicely done overall.

[Sachin Saraf]

Repost looks excellent Wow! Great job...

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful image. I really like the pose, real nice light, excellent detail, and the repost is much better.
Well done.

[Michael Liskay]

Thanks everyone for suggestions and comments. I am unable to "Reply with Quote" so this generic Thank You will have to do!

Mike