Blue Heron With Gopher

[Shadi Oveisgharan]

This blue heron caught a gopher. The 4 leaf clover dangling from the mouth of the gopher adds to the photo. Not baited or set up. Comments and critiques appreciated.
Nikon D3500
70-300mm lens
f/6.3
1/1250

[David Roach]

Hi Shadi, what a cool get. Prey item and plumage make this a great canvas for me. Slightly more contrast and sharpening on GBH face and a little more on the sides. Love the BG tree. TFS

[Ian Cassell]

Great action! Agree with David about needing a bit of sharpening on the bird's head.

[Dorian Anderson]

Wow - what an amazing moment! These guys are like sharks - they eat everything! The close view is great, and the gopher's face make the shot.

Unfortunately, the tree behind is quite distracting, and neither subject is in sharp focus. There's not much you can do about that now, sadly.

[Jack Backs]

Very cool image. Agree with what's been said so far. I suspect the softness in the birds head is motion blur. In hindsight a little faster shutter speed would have been helpful.

[arash_hazeghi]

pretty cool frame!

I feel bad for that gopher in pain, nice find. For me, a few moments earlier with gophers eye visible would have been killer. the image is not sharp as presented, it could be due to many factors hard to tell without seeing the RAW. you shutter speed does look like on the low side, you can crank up that ISO to get faster ss. the composition is too tight.

the BG is not ideal here it's a bit noisy and distracting

TFS, welcome to BPN