Grey Heron - breeding plumage.

Attachment 100963

Photographed late afternoon at Lake Panic , Kruger Park recently. A lot of breeding activity going on at the moment.
7D EF500+1.4 f5.6@1/800 iso 800 Cropped for comp.

C&C allways welcome.

I like the plumes and breeding colors on the heron. Though I am not familiar with this particular species, there appears to be a cyan cast in which you may want to try removing.

Love those blue lores and the raised breeding plumes. . Sharp, and not much of a color cast if any seen here. Loverly COMP and BKGR. I just wish that the bird had it's head turned a bit more toward you. All in all very well done.

Peter excellent detail and I like the composition. Beautiful.

nice head shot, I also see a blue/cyan cast .

Nice composition, the s shape of his neck makes it really strong. Raised crest adds interest as well. I wish for a bit more light on his face, (Could you try adding a bit of fill in your processing?) get rid of color cast, and I feel this is on the edge of being over sharpened as the feathers and bill have that "crisp" look. Definately worth a few post processing tweaks!

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions, much appreciated . Grace will reprocess from the Raw file and see if I can improve on the image.

I'll look forward to it Pieter, it is an image worth the while.