Reddish Egret

[Jeannean Ryman]

I love to watch Reddish Egrets. They are just plain fun, and put on quite a show while fishing. This one was taken back in April at South Padre Island, TX. I have a lot of Reddish Egret photos, so go back every now and then and process one I like. I liked the concentrated landing pose in this, with it's "mane" flowing in the wind. As always, your comments, suggestions, and critiques are always welcome and appreciated. (Techs: Nikon D7000/500mm f/4-P, 1.6x TC @ 1/2000. f/5.6, ISO 800. Cropped a little from top and right side.)

[dankearl]

Wicked pose!
Maybe a tad oversharp but a small nitpick.
Nice DOF also.

[Frank Schauf]

Nice scene and color.

[vishaljadhav]

Wow pose and classic timing on this one
i like the colours on the bird, the mane is dramatic
the concentration in that eye can be seen and that makes the image for me
I find the beak tip to be a tad softer than the other parts of the bird and may be a higher F value may have helped however i need that 1/2000 to get the freeze so i guess at the end choice to get the SS was prevailing
nice one over all

[Loi Nguyen]

Nice pose, low angle view, blur BG. The hairdo is great. Loi

[Karen Forderer]

I love the wild "mane" and the pose looks like he is walking on water. Great action photo. I'd like to see one of these birds.

[Bruce Spell]

Jeannean, such awesome timing to catch him in this pose! Almost like he is walking on top of the water. As has been mentioned, I love the ruffled feathers and the eye in this shot. The look of concentration he has is special. Colors and BG look good to me. Well executed for sure!

[Karl Egressy]

Nice low shooting angle. Love the pose and colors, Jeannean.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent dynamic pose and I like the low angle that has placed you at eye level with the reddish. the under wing area is a bit noisy, looks like you had to boost the shadows there?

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent pose. Love the colors,feathers on head and neck,beautiful details,nice low angle and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I appreciate it. Now a question regarding the noise issue. I did a small boost in shadows after I increased exposure in LR. It was underexposed because I was photographing a White-morph Reddish Egret. I was shooting in manual mode and didn't have time to change my settings, and then the dark-morph started chasing the white-morph. Here's a screen shot of the RAW file in LR showing the histogram and such. I was trying to expose for the whites, not counting on the dark morph's appearance. Any advice on how to properly expose both birds would be much appreciated...I'm still very "eager to learn".

PS. The foreground "blobs" are a flock of Skimmers watching the action. They eventually flew as the egrets ran toward them.