On the hunt

[Stu Bowie]

This Black Headed Heron was out in the early morning looking for his breakfast. A typical pose from a Heron is to stand dead still for ages waiting for a hint of any movement, and then strike down hopefully catching what ever is around. This was captured early morning at the Sewerage works in Cape Town where there are endless different species of birds, ducks, geese, pelicans and Flamingo's. Unfortunately there are no hides at this location, so a lot of the inflight captures are against the sky. I remember this morning where the sun was more behind the clouds than out giving me nice light. ( 1600 px wide )

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 300mm F/2.8 +2X TC = 600mm
1/800
F/7.1
ISO 800

Hand Held

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like it Stu, a little unusual. Lovely colours details and focus. My only suggestion would be to have a look at the whites under the eye. I am not saying they are blown but I think with a little luminosity masking there would be a little more detail to be had.
From an entirely selfish viewpoint the image is just the right size, i.e. I don't have to resize push pull mess about etc. (Sorry had to get that off my chest!) I suspect many people for example with lap tops would prefer 1200 px max?

[Bill Dix]

I do like the typical heron pose, and the colors of the background compliment the bird very nicely. Whites look OK on my screen. I also like the size as posted.

[Randy Stout]

Stu:

Nice color harmony between bird and background. Soft light. Whites on the cheek about 220 average.

Cheers

Randy

[Glenn Pure]

Excellent work Stu. Plenty to like here including the size of the image which works very well for me and a nice compromise with the new posting size. Background in this is great and I can see why you have composed to use it. This could also work as a vertical too, I think, but fine as presented. I have tried heron and egret shots like this myself but not pulled one off this well.

[David Salem]

What a cool looking frame Stu. The bird looks great with a nice pose and sweet details but the awesome colorful BG really sets this one apart. Love the larger posting size. Well done

[William Dickson]

Beautiful colours here Stu. Bird and BG fit so nicely. Lovely detail on the bird. Nice work.

Will

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Always appreciated.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely colors, beautiful background. Your composition gives me some ideas for the future. Techs spot on as always. Thank you for sharing, Stu.