This image was taken last month at Kalamas River estuaries in Northwestern Greece.
I had just arrived at my best spot just before sunrise. I found this Grey Heron fishing but
there was not enough light. While I was trying to figure out the best way to take some
photos, he dived and caught a water snake, then climbed back to his perch and flew away.
I have only two images where the head is sharp and this is one of them.
Canon 7D, 500 f/4L with 1.4x. ISO 1600, 1/100, f/5.6, exp +0.33.
Crop, Noise reduction, some contrast boost and sharpening.
All comments are welcomed and appreciated.
Petros
Last edited by Petros Petrou; 09-15-2013 at 09:43 AM.
Hi Petros - Awesome capture with prey in bill! On my screen the image unfortunately does not look very sharp, I think it is due to the limited ISO capability on the 7D, but mostly due to the slow ss, which I think is much to slow for the action sequence you captured. Besides causing the wing blur (which could still work) it caused soem motion blur to the bill and prey as well as the little streaks due to falling water droplets. I like the composition and Bg.
TFS
Hennie
Excellent critique from Hennie. Still glad to see the picture, great action, but challenging conditions with limited light, which limited your options for camera settings.
A well exposed ISO1600 image from the 7D should be OK so the IQ is more likely attributed to the slow SS. Good action though with an interesting prey item.
Thanks for your comments. I was aware that there was some motion blur to the bill and the prey, but I was thinking that since the rest of the head (eye included) is sharp, this could work. It seems that I may be wrong about this.
Very nice Petros. Sure there are technical shortcomings due to the low light working conditions, but the action trumps much of it here. What a cool prey item. I'm not sure I would want to wade around water with water snakes in it!
Grey Heron fishing
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