My First Ever Picture Of A Pike!!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I had been watching this basically motionless Great Blue Heron doing nothing for a while when it suddenly looked like something had its attention. It quickly lunged into the water...I expected to see something like a small frog, tadpole, or minnow, but to my great surprise it pulled out this large Northern Pike. Oh cool!!! My first ever! It did go easily down the hatch - but it had turned its back on me by that time, but not before having the fish aligned between its mandibles for the inevitable fun ride down the tunnel of doom...

Canon R6 + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1250s., f/5.6, ISO 400, natural light, handheld, small crop for comp (and straighten the horizon), contrast and saturation to taste.

[Paul Burdett]

What a catch! Lots of similar herons here, but never seen one catching something like this. Lovethe overall composition and processing. Very minor nit pic...the oof reed going through the bird's neck, but I'd be stoked to get this shot.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Daniel ... what a cool image and glad you had the luck to capture it .
The content is just oh so cool !!!

Nicely processed and I do not mind the dead reeds across the front

TFS Andreas

[Brian Sump]

Dang, that's quite a site. Northerns get huge so this must be a second year class or something.

A very nice presentation with the reeds, well done to manage to get the fish to fit between those stalks coming up ;-)

[William Dickson]

Very nice indeed....Really liking the contrast...Good POV and the bird stands out amongst the reeds...Good HA on both bird and fish....I once saw a Great Crested Grebe swallow a Pike and I couldn't believe what I saw...

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Pike steals the show! I know these guys eat anything, but I wouldn't have thought a crafty predator like a pike would fall prey like this. I can't believe it wouldn't bite/chew its way out once swallowed! Environmental context is nice too.

[Arthur Morris]

You are too, too good. With this and the Sabine's, you should consider buying some lottery tickets (though luck had nothing at all to do with the two great images)>

with love, artie

ps: If possible, send this one too 2400 unsharpened :)

[Gabriela Plesea]

Just awesome, Daniel. Did the Heron manage to swallow this big fish, it must have taken a while and a bit of struggle

Love everything about this - not just the action but also the environment, POV, colours, and of course PP work too!

A great pleasure to view as always,

Warmest regards,