Water Ballet

[Lyle Gruby]

Shot this guy this past September outside Memphis. He probably caught 20 fish in front of me. I was camped out in full camo trying to ambush a belted kingfisher (who never materialized--per usual). The sun was just rising and covered half the lake, but this egret would't go into the sun at all. I assume it was easier for him to see fish through the shaded water. FF, little bit of canvas added to the top. All C&C's greatly appreciated!

Techs:
D7000
200-400 with 1.4 @ 450mm
f/5.6
1/500
ISO 500

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Hi, very good low angle and I also like the angle of the bird. Its a tad tight at the top....would have been better to shoot without the TC. Action is nice but you did not have the SS to freeze it as much as I am sure you'd have liked.

Not sure about high iso performance of your camera...but if you were going for action, you should have raised it to get the SS at least over a 1000.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the look and the mood of this images, and the white& blue color combo. The raised wings, open bill,, and the drops all add. My only wish is for more room above the bird.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose and nice low shooting angle. Love the water droplets around the bird. Interesting lighting. Adding canvas to the top has already been mentioned.

[Melissa Groo]

Super pose, and gorgeous blues, and I really like the flying drops. Agree on more room above but otherwise I love the comp. Wish we could see the fish a little bit better. I agree with Artie that this has a really nice mood to it.

[PhilCook]

Yes to a little more room at the top.

It has the "Swan Lake" look and mood to it mostly because of the shade of blue I think, a little soft but with the mood this has it works, in fact maybe a bit more Gaussian blur or the like would make this quite artistic.

[Marina Scarr]

Love the color combo, the action the mood but the bird's head is not looking sharp to me.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice dynamic pose and the water drops add to the drama, a bit tight on the top and I wish the close wing was in a better position. head came out soft given the slow SS, you need at least 1/1600 or faster for this kind of action

TFS

[Lyle Gruby]

Thanks for the feedback. The D7000 is ok at high ISO's, but it definitely gets noisy above 500, so I try to keep ISO as low as I can. As I said in the OP, I was set up to shoot kingfishers coming into a perch that was lit--therefore my ISO wasn't higher, and that's why I was using a TC. The bird's head is sharp in the original RAW file, but I used Morkel's sharpening technique he posted. I lowered the opacity quite a bit because I thought it made the egret look "crunchy"--probably should have left it like it was. Really wish the fish was facing us. Agree on the wing position of the right wing.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Nice image, good splash and color combination! Head seems a bit soft.