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SonyA700~Sony70-400G@330mm~ISO500~F8~1/160sec~aperture priority~hand held~Brazos Bend State Park, Texas~8-8-09
CS4/Topaz Adjust3(small detail)/Topaz Clean2
When two adult Great Blue Herons confront each other, they tend to stick there heads up, and flair their wings. There was another adult off camera.
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill
Bill, Nice wing display and position.Wish for a more muted backround and a bit more contrast in the image.
Bill, I love the pose. I don't love the BG but I think you did well in presenting it. Agree w/ a bit more contrast-just a bit and another round of sharpening. Well done.
Thanks! You are both correct, about the background and lack of contrast. I confess, I messed up when taking the image. I checked the EXIF again, and I was in error about manual exposure(which I usually use). Aperture priority got me again! Thats why I generally steer clear of it, and here I ended up hand holding at too low a shutter speed, and consequently the image was a bit soft. Also, the bird didn't give me much time to adjust the camera correctly, perched as shown maybe 5 seconds, then he flew away. Now the background, which I would have preferred more blurred, would have required a shallower depth of field, but F8 for a large bird completely in focus seems about right.
regards~Bill
Bill, When I photograph birds it's usually at F8 also. If I have time(which is a big if) I will check the backround to see if it's muted enough depending on how close it is to the subject. At times it's not an easy balance to get the bird sharp and the backround muted if the subject is not far enough away.
I would straighten the post and blur the BG if cannot be done in camera for this particular effect. Cool effect mate. I do like the pose.
