American Bittern Fly-By.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I was concentrating on some Swamp Sparrows when I caught this American Bittern in flight from the corner of my eye. No time to fiddle with anything - just "point and shoot". How nice of it to fly at just the right height above the cattails too.

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/5.6, ISO 1600, natural light, handheld, cropped for comp (about 75% FF), reduced a bluish cast on the far wing, NR to the BG.

[Jonathan Ashton]

It's a nice image indeed, I like the composition and colours. The noise is not too intrusive but I guarantee a little gentle Topaz Denoise AI ideally on the raw file would really help.

[dankearl]

This is really nice... Great subject in flight. Head is a tad soft (1/1600 not enough), but acceptable..

[John Mack]

I really dig the background in this one. The cattails give a nice anchor. The red and green spots in the top are another bonus.

[Bill Dix]

Not an easy subject to catch in flight. Just point and shoot, as you say, is the only answer when these guys pop out of the marsh. Nice flight above the cattails, with lovely colors in the bg.

[Brian Sump]

Dan, I love when you find these smaller in frame BIF. IIRC, the last time it was a snowy against a dramatic fall bkg.

For me, super shot. The even light is calming and the blended bkg with the pinks, greens and slate is fab.

Glad that it cleared the grasses!

[arash_hazeghi]

love the pose and the environment, he had passed you just a tiny bit and the near wing could but a bit higher but it's a pretty frame. The IQ is not great like your other shots, a bit soft and lacking in fine details maybe due to a combination slow SS noise, and focus ...but you did the best you could with the equipment you used here so well done. I yet have to capture a good bittern frame, very hard to find them here. ;)

TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Bird and background are sublime in this great fly-by grab shot. The bird is angling slightly away from you. Wings fully up would have deprived us of a look at the dorsal surface of the far wing. A full downstroke pose would have been the bomb.

Note-the-less, there are not many images of this species in flight.

with love, artie

[Colin Driscoll]

Background alone would make a great print, lovely pastels. Terrific grab shot, that shows the bird up well with good IQ.

[gail bisson]

There are so few images of bitterns in flight and this is excellent.
The BG is gorgeous.
Maybe sharpen the head a bit with Topaz AI but otherwise I think this is a beautiful frame!
Gail

[annmpacheco]

Slam dunk gorgeous Dan, love the BG, colors and its a bittern, holy moly!!!