Great White Resting on Driftwood

[Cathy McEntee]

This was taken yesterday morning, before the cold snap set in. Lots of egrets and herons inshore to shoot :bg3:. This one was just lowering his leg after scratching his head.
Nikon D7000 Sigma 150-500mm @ 500mm
ISO 640, f6.3, 1/1600 - manual exposure
Minor adjustments in LR3, CS5 USM & removed branch from behind bird
Hand held from boat
C&C very much appreciated.

[Joel Eade]

Cool perch and the pose/HA is very nice as is the BG. A beautiful scene.

Only problem I see is that bird looks a little soft and the detail in the white plumage is missing especially on the shoulder.

Also I might be tempted to crop just a little from the left side.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Cathy,Joel provided good feedback not bad detail for HH 500MM. I did not check the image but some spots might have hot pixels, did any data clip on the right. That is the missing data on the shoulder. Probably half a stop of faster shutter would have helped. Regarding the crop, couple of opportunities here, notice the spot on the left side edge, move the crop over a tad or clone it out. The triangle in the ULHC can catch the eye as well another clone opportunity. I love the green habitat and for the perch, it is big but that is was what you saw so it is fine.On balance well done, a few clone opportunities and a slight exposure tweak. Remember when shooting anything bright always set the exposure for the brights/whites, check histogram if possible - thanks for sharing - keep em coming.

[Cathy McEntee]

Thanks very much Joel and Jeff for your helpful suggestions and input--will definitely work on the cropping, cloning and exposure suggestions.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Cathy, good suggestions and observations by Joel and Jeff. I like the image overall, maybe just a little crop from the left but not much. Whites are definitely too hot to handle in some areas - I think even as little as a third of a stop would have fixed that. I like the different pose and dark, saturated background. Very nice image!