Tricolored Heron hunting behaviour.

This guy was actively hunting non-stop mere feet from us for at least a good half hour. Many, many awesome poses were offered - hard to chose the best ones. I like this one for the "canopy" created by its wing above its head.

This heron uses his wings to create shadows in the water - thus luring in small fish that it then easily picks up with striking speed and precision. Very entertaining to watch as it prances and dances in a start-stop manner and waves its wings wide open.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @180mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/6.3, ISO 800 (techs histogram checked), handheld, about 80% FF.

Daniel:

It was a great morning, despite the cool rain! I have pondered which pose to work on as well, and the head merging with the wing was a question in many of the poses. I think this is a good choice.

The high key effect accentuates the impact of the shadow, which is important in this behaviour.

Like the eye color and purple wash on the neck.

Cheers

Randy

Great pose of course but to me the somewhat high-key effect doesn't do it here. It looks more washed out - on my calibrated macbook pro screen. :c3:

JR

Dan, the high key in this works so well, and I like the wingspread 'umbrella' pose. Great image design to show the reflection too. I like this lots. Well done.

Daniel so nice to see a fresh approach and I do like the effect created in this image. Nice pose and subdued colours with good compoition to include the shadow.

Gorgeous pose captured Daniel awesome shot. I think this could use a midtone adjustment as it looks a touch washed out on my calibrated monitor.

Daniel, loved the pose and the reflection. shooting birds at 180mm must be so much fun :-)

Terrific shot, Daniel. I've watched this behavior but never seen it captured so well. My first reaction was that it seemed a bit washed out. I like high-key shots, but maybe a little mid-tone boost in the bird would help. Sounds like a matter of personal preference.

Daniel, I like this quite a bit. When I go high-key, I'm actually looking for a bit of that washed-out look, so it looks good on my monitor. Nonetheless, I'm sure it would be interesting to try adjusting the midtones a bit as James suggested.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

Daniel, love the pose and the high-key look too. These birds are lots of fun. I shot many a few years ago on Cayo Guillermo in Cuba. I wish we had them up here!

Love the high-key. Simple is better for me (go figure... :bg3:).

Mikko