Snowy Egret... Breeding Color and Plumage

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Gatorland in Orlando, Florida before the pandemic revisiting it and doing it over recently. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S ED, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/2500 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1600 Auto WB, image captured at 350mm (525mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2022 and Topaz Denoise AI
Cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Learn more about Gatorland in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link https://birdsasart-shop.com/the-baa-...ic-site-guide/

[Arthur Morris]

Sweet. Perfect head angle and I love the raised crest. Just a few days past peak color. Was he on a railing?

with love, arite

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice portrait Joe, and I too am loving the crest.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Sweet. Perfect head angle and I love the raised crest. Just a few days past peak color. Was he on a railing?

with love, arite

Hi Artie, yes on a railing as I remember the image. There is a roof over part of the boardwalk at Gatorland. Under the roof where the benches are where you leave your buggy with additional equipment, beyond that the roof continue to cover the boardwalk for a short distance. This bird was just beyond the roof. It kept having a disagreement with another snowy. The crest was up because it was upset and the perch on the railing provided enough separation from the vegetation for the background.

Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Joe ... nice one , the bird sets of nicely from the BG , which is perfect .

Processing looks right the money ... very well done .

TFS Andreas

[William Dickson]

Looking real good Joe....The crest is amazing....Nicely captured and processed.....

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Strong portrait with all that feather detail. Woulda been easy to blow this bird away on the exposure front, but you seem to have held onto max detail. Sweet.