Black Crowned Night Heron
Here's one from yesterday. We had some wonderful diffused light in the late morning due to the weather here in SW Florida, and I came upon this fellow in what are some of the lowest water levels I have ever seen in the area I was photographing. I setup and waited until he stepped onto this seaweed covered log (he was actually quite active at 11:30 in the morning!). I love the inclusion of the environment in this image, but the branch at the lower left bothers me just a bit. Mixed emotions as to whether I should work it out of there, or adjust crop. I like the space in front of the bird, and I'm afraid that narrowing the crop will ruin environmental composition. I do have other nice images of him facing the other way, but I prefer this pose to those. Thoughts?
This was hand held with the 600mm (laying prone on the ground to get as close to eye-level as possible). Canon 1DsMII, Canon 600mm f/4L, ISO320, 1/200, f/7.1, all natual light (beautifully diffused by light cloud cover) at 11:30 AM.
http://CatcherofLight.smugmug.com/ph...9186158-X3.jpg