Tri-colored Heron with an itch

[Bill Dix]

From Ding Darling last month.

D7000, 500f4 + 1.4x, ISO 800, 1/2000s @ f/7.1 manual

[Geir Jensen]

This was beautiful in my eyes. I have no more to say.

[Marina Scarr]

This is truly a terrific capture, Bill, with great details. The BG/FG is absolutely amazing, as is the pose of course.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Great pose, detail, and light. Beautiful BG. I like how you handled the shadows....no trace of blue tint. Well done.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Simply superb Bill! Spectacular shot!

[Don Nelson]

Exceptional image, Bill. I like the reflection of the legs and the pose is superb.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, good DOF, and just love the curve of the wing. You have brought out excellent feather detail throughout, sharp, and the calm water takes this over the top.

Looking at the ripple below, does this need a touch of CCW rotation.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great pose, sharpness, details, DOF and composition. One of your best Bill!

[Tim King]

Bill, you caught something special here. Fine job. A bit more room on the bottom as a minor critique.

[Shawn Zierman]

Love the pose and the beatiful sweeping arch line it creates in the frame.
I agree that it could use a slight ccw rotation for perfect level.
Did you do any pp work on the whites of the bird? I would except them
to gleam a bit more than this, given my perception of the light quality here.
Regardless, it's a beauty of a frame.

[Bill Dix]

Hi Bill, good DOF, and just love the curve of the wing. You have brought out excellent feather detail throughout, sharp, and the calm water takes this over the top.

Looking at the ripple below, does this need a touch of CCW rotation.

Thanks Stuart. The ripple does make it look like some rotation is needed, but actually, I cropped quite a bit so that the arched wing would fill the frame. In the full frame, I could see the reflected head and was able to align that with the real head for proper rotation. Not sure why the ripple is slightly cockeyed.

[Bill Dix]

Love the pose and the beatiful sweeping arch line it creates in the frame.
I agree that it could use a slight ccw rotation for perfect level.
Did you do any pp work on the whites of the bird? I would except them
to gleam a bit more than this, given my perception of the light quality here.
Regardless, it's a beauty of a frame.

Thanks Shawn. I used the s/h tool to bring down the whites only by about one click, to try and tweak little detail. The whites looked surprisingly yellow, I guess due to the fairly early morning light, so I desaturated a little bit to make them look more realistic to my eye. You're probably right that they could be just a tad brighter.

[Joe Senzatimore]

One of your best. Great low angle.

[John Cooper]

What a superb capture Bill of this heron preening. Not always easy to have everything come together when photographing preening birds but I find this one quite spectacular.
Excellent detail, exposure, BG and the arched wing contributes so much to this great composition. Exquisite!

[Jonathan Ashton]

I didn't look at the posts before I judged the image but my first word to myself was also beautiful! I like everything about this image it would make a gorgeous print.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for your comments. Most of the credit on this one goes to the heron, for giving me such a wonderful pose.