Snowy Egret striking

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created on the Fall 2018 DeSoto IPT on the morning of Septemeber 26, 2018. Standing at full height behind my tripod, I used the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens and the mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR. ISO 400. Matrix metering at about zero: 1/4000 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode was perfect with the histogram pushed all the way to the right. AUTO1 WB at 7:41am on a clear morning.

Nikon Focus Peaking fine-tune value: +5. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here.

One to the right of center Group (grp) Continuous (C in Nikon/AI Servo with Canon) AF was active at the moment of exposure. The array was centered on the bird’s neck right on the same plane as the eye. (Note: today I would use d9 AF for images like this.)

To see the original check out the My Two Favorite Backgrounds. And in search of soft, out-of-focus blue water ... blog post here. You might learn a lot about image clean-up ...

As for the image, don't be shy; all comments are appreciated.

with love, artie

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Perfect whites, nice action with splash, but still clear view of eye. Clean background. All good.

Cheers

Randy

[Debapratim Saha]

Killer shot Artie! Hats off!

[Florin Sandu]

Nice action here Artie, I like the colors and the background which complement the entire photo.
I noticed some spots on the bird's feather. They are natural or are some artifacts?
TFS...

[kevin Hice]

The whites look perfect and the intensity of the eye is superb. For me the action or water burst is what catches the eye.Only thing I would do is add a little room behind, I know doesn't really matter what is happening in the rear.
Just seems a little tight IMO.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Just about perfect. The image clean-up was well worth it. The splashing action is rather appealing as well.

Florin, to answer for Artie, the "spots" on the plumage is from the water movement below reflecting patterns upwards and onto the egret. I've had that happen to some of my images as well and find it pretty neat.

[Alex Becker]

Killer shot Artie. Beautiful action, two tone BG and splash. The clean up was worth it, and impressive. TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Nice action here Artie, I like the colors and the background which complement the entire photo.
I noticed some spots on the bird's feather. They are natural or are some artifacts?TFS...

Thanks Florin. The greyish areas are called "caustics," -- the rippling reflection of the low angled sun off the water. Similar to what you see when swimming in a pool on a sunny day.

with love, a

[Moe Richard]

superb exposure value here getting the darker areas and the plumage just right. I am enjoying the splash and the composition with the blue fading into orange green background. the cleanup job looks to be a lot of work but well worth it. Well done!