Tri-colored Heron Dip Fishing

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image early yesterday morning at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 230mm
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 450 AWB HH
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Michael Thompson]

great action capture. also love the splashing and rings in the calm water.

[Joseph Przybyla]

great action capture. also love the splashing and rings in the calm water.

Hi Michael, the splashing rings are other small fishing breaking the surface as they flee capture. Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, nice timing and I love the saturated blue of the water, really adds 'pop/standout' to the subject. I also like the fact the head/body is sharp, but you have motion blur in the wings. With the feet trailing on the surface or just breaking it, can these birds really walk on water? A tad of selective Exposure may help on the legs and a Mid tone Curves adj just for some of the whites, just to bring back a hint more detail/structure.

TFS
Steve

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Joe, very well timed to have captured the fishing behaviour, and I like the trailing feet across the water. I think he will need to catch a whole lot more fish to fill himself up.

[gail bisson]

Hi Joe,
You have beautifully captured one of my favorite bird behaviors.
Nice and sharp where it counts and the slight head turn towards the viewer really helps.I love the concentric circle patterns in the water.
Whites on the breast seem a bit hot- I wonder if you can tease some more detail out of them.
Very nice frame,
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

Cool action you captured here. I like the comp as well. The whites on the chest, belly and leg are fried and have not feather details showing. Not sure you could save this one.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Cool action you captured here. I like the comp as well. The whites on the chest, belly and leg are fried and have not feather details showing. Not sure you could save this one.

Hi Isaac, thank you for viewing and commenting. Regarding the whites, all indications here are that they are not fried. Maybe can get more detail with careful post processing, will try. Here is a screen capture showing the image and histogram as imported into Lightroom. Pretty much a perfect histogram for the scene. Nothing climbing the right hand side and the upper right hand clipping box does not show clipping.

[Isaac Grant]

Hey Joe, this would be one of those times that I would completely ignore the histogram. The whites are fried and don't have any feather details that the eye can see. It does not really matter what the histogram says.