Juvenile Night Heron

It's been a great year for travel and photography. This winter I will have thousands of images to show and work on. I had a few days back home this week and heard about a Juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron that was being seen at a local park. Off I went..

I've always been a fan of W. Maroldo's work here in BPN, so in this image, I tried to emulate his work. I used various Topaz filters to get the desired effect. Not sure where the blue was introduced but liked it and left it in.

Hope you've all had a great summer..

Thanks Paul! Funny thing me and my girlfriend were looking at BPN, and your image, and before reading it I said "oh, yeah, Paul always liked my stuff" and she said "you're not going to believe this" and she read me your kind words. Cool. Anyway, I might try a history brush to bring back the eye with the image, and perhaps a background blur (before applying the filters). regards~Bill

Hi, Paul, I think the blue is kind of whimsical. When I saw the thumbnail I thought it was scratch art:S3: Can hardly wait to see the results of your trips!

Nice high-contrast look, Paul. Love the bits of color on the bittern. I agree with Bill on blurring the BG to make it less busy.

I thought it was a scratch art example too! I like the bird but I also think the background is too busy and competes with the bird.

Thank you all for comments, as suggested I blurred the background a bit...Is it enough?

Definitely looks better, Paul. Might just blur the top and right side of the BG a little more.

Nice work on the blur, Paul, I really like this version, and I do like the bt of blue - realistic r not.

I like the direction the blur is going -- it really makes the bird stand out. Think I would like to see it taken a little further.

Cool image Paul, and I think the repost is better - maybe a little more selective blurring for me too. That is so great that you get to travel and photograph so many birds. I will be looking forward to seeing some of them too!

Not sure its my favorite..but hey majority rules. I really don't use the blur tool often but must admit, the image now has depth.....