An Endangered Australian Bittern with an endangered Growling Grass Frog!

[Mervyn Marsh]

Taken on Sunday at the Western lagoons.

species
Common Name: Australasian bittern
Scientific Name: Botaurus poiciloptilus

Date: Sunday 28/6/15

Location: WTP Western lagoons

Camera Details
Brand/Model: Canon EOS 1dx
Lens: Canon 500mm mk ii and 1.4 iii

Camera Settings
ISO: 3200
F-Stop: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/2000s

Exposure Bias/Metering/Flash: +0.3

Technique: handheld
Attraction Aides: NONE

Post Production: crop and sharpen, added some contrast.

[adrian dancy]

You have made a grand capture when struggling for light. It is sad the bird is endangered. There is some detail lacking in parts and I wonder if that might be because of very out of focused vegetation? Do you know why the bird is endangered (although I might guess)?

[Randy Stout]

Mervyn:

The thumbnail doesn't do this one justice. I feel bad for both of them in a way.

I think that Adrian called the variable OOF areas correctly, as most of the bird is sharp, and at that shutter speed, wouldn't expect motion blur.

Background is busy, since this is the environment they hang out in, but the action is clearly seen .

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

the action and prey are great but the IQ has suffered quite a bit from non optimal processing. Image is contrasty and lacks any fine details. it has a very strong brown cast too. all of these issues can be solved with proper processing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the natural history elements of the image. Good comp, and it looks as if the bittern is yo your presence . I suspect the smooth detail is due to NR rather than oof elements. As Arash mentions, this image should be fairly easy to spruce up in post.