Great Egret In The Pond

[Barry Ekstrand]

Taken at dusk in a pond near my house, this egret was walking in shallow water and periodically snagging & eating small fish .

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 400mm f5.6, Canon EX 1.4

560 mm, f8, ISO 800
Av mode, 1/4000 sec

DPP raw conversion, CS5, Nik Color Efex Detail Extract on egret, Define & Noiseware noise reduction on background

Comments appreciated!

Barry

[Daniel Cadieux]

You got some nifty colours in the water, as well as the water reflecting off the egret's plumage (it's a Snowy Egret). I like that you made the subject small in the frame in order to take advantage of those neat colour reflections, I just wish you had not centered it so much.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely water colors and ripple. I think you cropped this so that you would have the full ripple effect on the left but not sure this crop is making for the most powerful image. I just pulled the image into PS, and I would try placing the bird in the left portion of the frame and cropping. Even without the left portion of the ripple, I feel it's a stronger image. Exposure and angle on the snowy egret are super.

[Barry Ekstrand]

Dan and Marina,

Many thanks for the comments. The centering of the egret came from my attempt to keep all the ripples and reflection, and also was trying to maximize the amount of the colorful BG in the image. However I appreciate your comments that it may be better to lose some of that and get the bird over to the side. I'll re-crop and try it as you suggest.

Dan, thanks for the correction on the egret species, of course you are correct. I'm not particulary learned in avian species overall but this is one I know as there are so many Snowy Egrets in my area - their yellow feet is my identification key. Apparently I had a synapse lapse when typing, thanks again for correcting me.

Barry