Great Blue Heron in flight

[Tim Rucci]

I spent 9 days recently traveling all around the state of Florida and made lots of stops. Thanks to some members of this forum including Artie Morris and Alfred Forns, I think I skipped some spots that would have been wasted and managed to stop in some productive sites. One surprising thing is that Merritt Island was very productive and we spent 2 days there, and we almost didn't even stop. Here is a great blue heron I grabbed at Wakodahatchee. I didn't have a good flyer of this species prior to this one and while some people may find something not to like about it, this is probably my best GBH so far. I'll post a few more images from the trip in the coming days. EXIF: Canon Mark IIN, 100-400L IS lens at 150mm, 1/1600 at f/8, partial metering, exposure bias at zero, in natural light (no flash). More of the images can be seen here: http://www.pbase.com/tim32225/wild_florida

Thanks... Tim

[Philip Lombard]

I like the wing action and the lighting is right on, althought I might hit the top slider on curves to make it jump a little.

[Jay Tan]

Love the pose and blue sky with clouds.

[Harold Davis]

what's not to like about it, tim?!! looks great!! i love the wings down position and the bg is sweet too.

[Dieter Schaefer]

Love the wing position and the head angle. Wish for a bit more space on top and behind the heron, could do with less on the bottom. Imported the image to PS, increase saturation, adjusted exposure (whites in the original post look gray on my monitor) and de-saturated the blues a bit:

[Tim Rucci]

Love the wing position and the head angle. Wish for a bit more space on top and behind the heron, could do with less on the bottom. Imported the image to PS, increase saturation, adjusted exposure (whites in the original post look gray on my monitor) and de-saturated the blues a bit:

Thanks for your comment. I could easily do what you suggest, as the photo you see is about 3/4 of the original shot, cropped from the middle of the frame. I always seem to be challenged with how to best crop a photo, but what I did seemed like what looked the best to me. I also was thinking about cropping tight enough so that the bird would not look so small in relation to the total frame. Thanks again... Tim

[Leroy Laverman]

I agree with Dieter's crop suggestion. I lightened the bird and warmed the colors some. Really nice in flight capture.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Tim, Good to hear that you did well at Merritt. I love the image; the wing position is absolute killer. Leroy's re-post wins by a mile. Thanks Mr. Laverman!

[Tim Rucci]

Hi Artie,

I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on this image. And it makes me feel like I accomplished a little something just because someone with your knowledge and experience thinks highly of my effort here. And thanks again for your site tips prior to the trip.

You saved me some time by steering me away from at least one or two places we had planned to visit. We put over 1700 miles on the truck and bought more diesel fuel than I'd like to admit. At $4 plus per gallon most of the time, and getting only about 17 mpg, we dipped into our wallets a lot. I hope to bump into your again in person one of these days.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Tim, You are most welcome.