Great reflections - Eastern Great Egret

[Scott Turner]

Spent nearly 5 hours this morning photographing landscapes and wildlife, managed to take over 60gb of photo's and used up all my batteries.

This shot of an Eastern Great Egret really stood out to me because of how calm the water is showing his reflection, whilst capturing that precise moment of a morning breakfast.

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Canon 5DMKIII & 500mm F4 1/2000s @f4 ISO320, taken around 7:30am.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Scott, well timed to capture the moment the egret caught its breakfast, and I like the trailing water from the bill. I also like the the turbulant water around the egret. The light angle isnt ideal which looks like it was from the left, and I feel the image needs some CCW rotation. Lining up the eyes will confirm the rotation.

[Scott Turner]

Thanks Stuart :) will do so. Unfortunately yes the light coming from the left side making it back lit slightly with some spilling onto the body.

[gail bisson]

I agree you have a good reflection and like the image for the same reasons you do.
Unfortunately, the problem is that harsh side light and the blown whites along the back and neck.
Gail

[Scott Turner]

Hi Gail, thanks for the input. The whites arent actually blown, I had this discussion with a few other fellow photographers and they thought, (along same did I) the whites were blown, but according to the histogram the arent.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Perhaps "blown" is not the correct term in this case, but the whites on the back are rather hot and detail-less. Check out the same spot on the reflection, it looks alot better as far as tonality goes. Pulling back on the "highlights" in raw conversion may work well here. Good action though, I like the water movement in the middle of an otherwise very still area, pretty cool. I agree some CCW rotation would be good.

[arash_hazeghi]

the action is great but too bad about the light, egrets always need low sun directly behind you to bring out the subtle tones/details.