Great Egret

[Ron Conlon]

Just minutes before the sun set. I liked the dappled light. Without the shadow all detail was lost in the white plumage.
D800E 500mm 1.4x 1/1250 f640

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Ron - You handled the dappled light well. I do wish that the head angle was a bit better so that the eye was angled toward the viewer more.

TFS,
Rachel

[gail bisson]

I think there is a lot of good stuff going on here except for the vegetation in the FG, which really pulls the eye down and away from the egret.
Great dappled light, beautiful BG colors and the techs are excellent with excellent exposure and IQ.
Do you have an image of this guy past all the vegetation?
I am OK with the HA because I can still the eye clearly.

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, Rachel and Gail.
Gail, the light was fading fast, but I did have time to move closer and to a higher POV to catch him/her without the foreground vegetation--but with the higher POV I lost the colorful reflection. When I get rich enough I am going to have the birds do as I want them to ;)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Dappled light on a subject does not often work...but here it looks really good. I like the head angle too for the "looking for prey" behaviour. I'm with Gail about the FG vegetation, you did not have much choice here.