I had read on Artie's blog that the previous Saturday that Cattle Egrets were dropping into the rookery at Gatorland. I went there yesterday morning hoping to capture a few portraits of their breeding plumage and colors. This is one of the images from yesterday. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm
1/2000 F/6.3 Matrix Metering EV +1/3 ISO 1000 AWB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 04-02-2017 at 07:17 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Excellent colors and detail on the bill, eye and lores. Good exposure on the whites as Stuart noted. A bit more DOF might have brought the plume into sharper focus.
Man I wish these guys were there when I met you Joseph. Very nice details you have here. Crazy nice looking bird, colors and background.
I agree with Bill that a higher f stop would have helped you get more of the back of the head in sharp focus. Also the upper back has a blue/gray cast to it and does not look clean white. Ideally I guess a bit more of a head turn to the right would have helped the bird to be a little more parallel to the back of the camera and would have helped with the depth of field issue. Also I would prefer a little more room above the birds head.
That second one is fantastic Joe ! I wonder if you could pull a little more detail from the shoulder , or would that make it look to contrasty ?
I hope the still have some colors like that in May when I head south.
Cattle Egret... Breeding Colors and Plumage
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