Preening Black-crowned Night-Heron.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I was happy when this individual perch on a nice branch and with clean surroundings - these guys like messy habitats! It was perched facing me for the longest while, and I got many good pictures of that, but when it turned around and started to preen it was even better IMO. Out of many images of the preening session this was my favorite in part due to the ruffled feathers and perfectly curved plume.

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4 TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1000s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, small crop for comp, the worst offending specks in the water removed, darkened the legs as they were almost washed out in-camera.

[Marina Scarr]

Killer image. Love that dark BG and that flying crown. I'd take a little off of the bottom.

[stuart wanuck]

nicely captured love the feather

[Karl Egressy]

Well captured, love the pose colors and IQ, Daniel.

[gail bisson]

I too, love that perfectly curved head feather!
Excellent IQ and I like the environment the heron is situated in.
I would crop from the bottom a bit.
Well done!
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

Nice preening pose and the signature feather gives a sense of motion. I'm wondering if the blues and red could use a bit of desaturation....they look a bit unnatural to my eye.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact.

[Mike Poole]

I love the way the colours on the heron appear 'layered'. Makes for a very pleasing shot

[David Cowling]

Lovely image Daniel. Super IQ and perfectly curved head feather. Even the rock it is perched on seems to have something special about it.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Beautiful preening pose Daniel. That solo feather rocks alright!
I like the compositional balance just as it is presented.
Great work!

[arash_hazeghi]

love the pose Dan, good exposure and details too

hope you are doing well man

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image in habitat.Superb preening pose with very nice HA, beautiful colors and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Shawn Zierman]

Gorgeous pose...great plumage and technically spot on imo....I wonder about the black and white possibilities here too...Not sure you could have conjured up a nicer perch.