Snowy Egret Hunting -- The Long and the Short of it.

[Bill Dix]

Watching the antics of this guy the other morning at JBWR reminded me of the Reddish Egrets in Florida. Here, he stalked along a straight-line course through the pond, wings aflap. This is early in the sequence that took another 7 seconds before culminating in an anti-climactic catch of a fingerling. I liked the way his path shows in this pano crop. A more conventional crop is on the following pane.

D7000, 700mm, ISO 640, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual.

[Bill Dix]

Here's a more conventional crop of the same frame.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Beautiful Image Bill. I like the second crop. It seems to bring the viewer into the bird's world.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, well exposed on the whites, and I like the raised wings from the fishing pose. I dont mind either post.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely IQ and exposure. I like how the bird pops from the BG. I like th crop in the OP...Its different and I can see what you are trying to do!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Bill very nice image , definitely the OP for me . As Dumay i think that makes it different . Nice job on Exposure and colors.
TFS Andreas

[keith mitchell]

Interesting way to show this bird Bill, I go for the original even though some may think it breaks the rules a bit, excellent job on the exposure.

Keith.

[John Robinson]

Second for me Bill.
Love it. Watched one of our Egrets doing "What they do" the other morning but didn't get any pics,
Good one.
John

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image, Bill Sir.
Wonderful exposure on whites with superb details. Great wing show, beautiful HA, nice trail of water and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Joe Galkowski]

Well, call me conventional, but I like the second crop version better. The wake behind the snowy is still there to tell the story, but the bird is more clearly the subject. Nice exposure on the whites. Well done. I very much like the wing position.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Beautiful image, Bill. Like the BG, raised foot and wings advancing towards small fish. Very nice control of whites.




Geoffrey

[David Salem]

You know which one I like best:) Although I like the first one fine, the second really shows off the fine feather detail and brings us closer to this beautiful bird.
This only works when you have good detail, like this frame. Well done Biill

[Aidan Briggs]

Hey Bill, love the first one. IMO it is a much stronger image. The wake adds to the composition immensely and helps create a unique image. While the second image is nice and technically sound, there are dozens if not hundreds of images that are almost exactly like it already out there.

Your original would look great as a big print on a wall!

Keep em coming!

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for your comments. It's always interesting to see the different opinions. Here we have 4 preferring the OP, 4 preferring the RP in pane #2, and 3 not expressing a preference. Aiden echoed my thoughts. Although I like the conventional comp in Pane #2, there are lots of egret shots just like it. It's fun to try something a little different from time to time, not always with great success, but I like the OP for being a bit unique.

[Arthur Morris]

Well done. The pano/wake crop by a mile.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Artie.