Striated Heron

[Paul Burdett]

Here's another from my newly discovered location. This Striated Heron posed nicely for me for around 20 minutes, during which I tried a number of different shots/angle etc. I do have sharp images of usual poses, but thought I'd post this one of it scratching. I like the 16x9 crop, noise reduction applied to the BG and some tone/colour target adjustments to the bird.
7Dii, 100-400@400mm, 1/1000th sec, f5.6, iso640, TV mode hand-held.

[David Roach]

I like the spotlight effect against the dark BG and slight motion blur on the scratch. TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely composed and I like the dark background it makes for a dramatic presentation, a very pleasing image.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Black Background really works for this image.

I think you can move the bird a little bit higher up the frame. If this was a crop, I would redo the same.

Bit more sharpening on the eye will also help.

TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pretty neat "blacklit" situation you had here. I like the scratching pose, but I personally would have preferred the head/body angled a touch more towards us. I also feel the whole heron could use some additional sharpening for web presentation (I have no doubt that your file is nice and sharp). Good comp and details.

[John Mack]

Like the scratching pose. The dark background is great. Nice the bird is in the sun. Nice and sharp.

[Paul Burdett]

Thank you all for the feedback...it's much appreciated. Went back to the same spot today and there was a White-faced Heron on the same branch!
Krishna: I'm happy with the position of the bird in the frame, and I did apply extra sharpening to the eye...but will take a look at the file again.
Daniel: Thank you. Yes, I agree the HA could be better. I did apply sharpening to the whole bird, but will re-examine the settings for the web presentation. Cheers.

[greg cowle]

Very nice image design. I like the angle of the light, your crop and aspect ratio.

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Greg...cheers!