Theme: eye-to-eye with a great blue heron

[Bob Smith]

It was a cold day in January and this fellow was so determined to stay hunched up and warm that he didn't even bother to stretch out his neck as I pulled up alongside him in the ditch, got myself organized, and got the shot. 7DII, EF 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS II,f/5.6, 1/3200, shot from truck window.

[John Mack]

Nice and sharp. Like the ruffed up feathers on the back of the head. The even light brings out the detail nicely.

[Daniel Cadieux]

It is sharp indeed and boy does it look cold! I also like the feathers curled up by the brisk January wind. IMO the comp needs more space top and left, and there seems to be some shadowing just above the head - perhaps due to some bleeding when darkening the white feathers on the head. I also think some NR to the top part of the BG would be good.

[gail bisson]

Good solid image of this GBH.
I too like the fluffed up neck feathers.
Sharp, exposure looks good.
I see what Daniel is talking about re: dark band above head. Can you explain what this might be?
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

good comments above already. the image is too small for those viewing on large monitors like myself. the feathers are a bit over sharpened and some noise has crept in, especially in the BG. nice light but very tight framing.

TFS

[Bob Smith]

I appreciate all your comments. I'm not sure of the cause of the band above the forehead but it may be spillover from some brush work on the head Gail. I thought initially it was just a variation in the BG but when I zoomed in on the image it became more evident. In this repost I've brought the crop back to give more room in front ( nothing available on top Daniel ) and done some NR on the BG. I'm wondering why you objected to the tight framing Arash, given this month's theme. For some reason I don't have the RAW original on this, only a JPG, so I can't review what sharpening I did . What is it Arash that makes all these fine filaments appear too sharp to you, given that that is the very nature of the structure, ie. a very thin structure As I posted this I could see the "sharp" nature of the filaments and actually wondered if someone would make that objection, but I don't understand where or what the transition line is between nicely sharp and oversharp.