Green Heron.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This cooperative fella allowed many tight portrait opportunities (some at minimum focussing distance!) but this one may be my favorite of the bunch for the framing created by the oof grasses below. The BG is water as it was nestled on the bank of the pond, waiting for prey to swim by. I needed to pish to get the HA I wanted...

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/200s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, a few grass stems too close to the face trimmed via patch and clone tools, and the brighter grass heads above the head and in front of the bill toned down via low opacity clone.

[Phillip Tomkinson]

Hi a nice looking image I do find the grass a bit bright but it dose fit in with the over all image very well.

Phil.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This one is a beauty Dan, well composed and I like the peek-a-boo look!

[Iain Barker]

Really like this image especially the way the grasses frame the heron. Well done Daniel.

[Grace Scalzo]

More and more, I am liking images that artfully include habitat and this one is perfect. Grasses add interest and color and give an indication of the nature of the bird, where he hangs out, and how he hunts. The angle of the bird in the frame is perfect.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Daniel,

Greetings. Just beautiful. The color, fine feather detail & most especially the eye are superb. Remarkable hh technique at 1/200th. Good show!

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Bill Dix]

This really captures the way we often see these guys. Lovely colors and pose, and the head turn makes all the difference. Nice PP work, and great hand-holding at 1/200s.

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful image, Daniel inspiring for me. I'll post a similar image I always liked but never posted.

[Satish Ranadive]

Daniel Sir,
Magnificent image of Heron in the very nice environment. Love the colors,nice details, nice looking grass blades parallel to bird and beak.
Beautiful composition with beautiful greens,grey and blues in the BG.

Regards,
Satish.

[Dan Busby]

Terrific for all the reasons mentioned Daniel. The only thing I might try is removing the double highlight in the eye (even though not caused by flash).

[Marina Scarr]

I love the hair on the back of his neck standing up, Daniel!!! Well done in hiding the bird in its environment. Your comp works very nicely.

[Richard Flack]

TFS Dan. I really like the composition and the framing. Nice one!

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Dan, I love the enviroment and natural vignetting

[Diane Miller]

It's simply gorgeous the way it materializes out of the grasses. Perfect DOF and wonderful artistic BG!

[Lyle Gruby]

This is awesome. I absolutely love natural frames like this.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Excellent Dan - very natural it almost makes me feel I was there.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Looks like you got your fair share of keepers with this guy! The environmental feel of this one is spot on for me. This is what I envision when I think of a greenie!