Green Heron in "The Zone".

[Daniel Cadieux]

Check out the concentration on this individual's face as it slowly stalks a small fish. I was testing the limits of my handholding capabilities here too...check out the slow-ish shutter speed..good thing the heron had frozen in this pose for a few seconds before striking, but gotta love the 4-stop IS!

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/80s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, levelled the horizon then cropped (about 80% FF), some of the brighter stems of grass toned down (low opacity clone).

[Grace Scalzo]

This is pretty crazy good. The intensity draws me right in to the photo. Amazing job with handholding, too.

[Karl Egressy]

Pretty amazing shot, Daniel. Love the stalking pose, stare and the nice habitat.
I have been watching them fishing and going about their business at a very close range in the last two weeks or more.
Lot of fun.

[Marina Scarr]

Loving that low angle, Daniel. The grasses and calm water really give the viewer a sense of habitat. This guy is on a mission!!!

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the low angle, intense hunting pose, reflection, IQ, setting and composition. Excellent image Daniel!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Daniel,

Looks like you were in the zone as well. His concentration is what makes this image - you captured him doing what they do best without disturbing at all.

Miguel

[David Salem]

This bird is locked on, and so were you. Great view of this behavior and I like the facial detail. The calm water adds to the scene. Nice work Daniel.

[Richard Flack]

Love the angle and the intensity of this shot. Great stuff!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, excellent low angle and the head and bill of the heron really pop out. Just love that water. In most cases, the blade of grass infront of the heron would have been distracting, but the concentration of the heron takes the show.

[Melissa Groo]

Very cool and unusual view. Were you sitting in the water? Lying on the shore? I'm curious. Whatever, this is a wonderful perspective that gives a sense of what it's prey must be looking at in its last seconds@

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,you can feel the tension,well done.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Nice low shooting angle, tack sharp and with good light. Great looking eye also.

[Enrique Patino]

Awesome image Daniel. I tweaked your image using a couple of luminosity mask actions I have been playing with and I think you can improve detail and tonal contrast @ the brighter areas of the bird. I can email you the image if interested in seeing the subtle "improvements" (??) achieved that way. TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys, glad you like it!

Melissa, I was lying flat on the opposite shore (across a narrow creek)...my head was lower than my body due to the slope (similar to the BG you see). I got a nice head rush when I got back up!

Enrique, thanks for taking the time to tweak my image. You can post it in this thread for us to see :-)

[Sandy Witvoet]

Oh MY... feel like I'M being stalked! One heck of a steady hand, Daniel! All the elements blend together perfectly.

[Enrique Patino]

I had worked this at home. I now re-workeed on my laptop, which is not good... but I hope you get the gist of it...

[yogesh_puranik]

another stunning image daniel. I can't believe this is handheld image simply awesome job nice concentration, sharpness and behavior captured.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks for the tweak Enrique...looks good.

[Girish Prahalad]

great shooting angle & comp. excellent details & love that intense look. great IQ for a handheld shot at such a low SS.

[Enrique Patino]

you are welcome Daniel. This is the one I tweaked at home. Not a perfect monitor, but at least it is calibrated. If you load all three and look at them in sequence, you can clearly see the differences between the three images. I think this version is the best of the three w/respect to detail and contrast in the brighter areas. Cheers!