Catch of the day

[Dan Busby]

Early morning glow on this Little Blue Heron fishing at Estero Lagoon in SW Florida a couple of weeks ago. All C&C welcome and appreciated.
Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4L +1.4x, ISO:800, f/6.3@1/4000, AP, no comp., AI Servo AF, evaluative metering, Gitzo 3530LS, leveling head, Jobu HD2 gimbal. Cropped from right and a bit from bottom, top and left - maybe 20% in total. Mild NR on BG, Topaz InFocus plus light selective USM and vibrance in CS5. Minor "cleanup" of spots on back of bird.

[jack williamson]

Pretty cool that I think I can see eye of the minnow. I like the water and the BG, the heron seems to need a little more pop.

Jack

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, super low angle, with a good feeding pose. He's going to need a lot more of that size to fill himself up. I agree a little contrast will work. With regards to rotation, all the ripples below and to the right of the heron look level, but as one looks to the left, the ripples seem to rise. I would leave as is. :w3

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colours.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Dan,
Great timing and angle. I think bringing down the brightness a few points will do the trick for me and give that extra pop. Easy tweak to a very nice image. I wonder if I was there with my tour group as I was there for the last 2 weeks!

[Dan Busby]

Thanks for suggestions. I'm still never certain how it will appear on BPN but I usually find it to be a bit darker than I had processed. Therefore I made the first post a bit too bright. Here's a quick adjustment - decreased brightness and increased contrast - just a tad.

Roman - there were no IPTs the day I shot this - might have been more like 3 weeks ago.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Looks better to me Dan. Subtle yet effective!

[Karl Egressy]

Nice low angle action shot of this handsome Little Blue Heron Dan. I wasn't lucky with them this year.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot. Real nice shooting angle, great detail, and I really like the background.Well done.