Black-crowned Night-Heron

[Daniel Cadieux]

These guys tend to be rather skittish up here, so when I stumbled upon this accommodating individual I was pretty stoked! I came back to visit it on a couple of occasions hoping for a better perch and view of it, and on this particular morning it was the perfect situation.

Canon R6 + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/5.6, ISO 6400, natural light, handheld while lying prone along the bank and using the flippy screen with the camera held lower than my body (I love these flippy screens at times!!), full frame. Removed a couple of minor imperfections on the perch (spot removal). Topaz NR.

[Steve Kaluski]

Clean, simplistic and well executed Dan, I would suggest darkening the FG, I think it will help where the (duck weed?) on the log.

TFS
Steve

[Randy Stout]

Classic Daniel!! Great POV, nice pose, creamy bg.
The only thought I have is that because the perch is so large in relationship to the bird, that it might be worth a try to darken it a bit so it isn't quite so dominant in the frame.

Having said that, I really like this one.


Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Dan, I like the image if I didn't know you lived in Canada I would have thought you captured the image at Circle B. Everything looks good to me, thank you for sharing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks guys, I'll check out those suggestions. Randy, I never thought of darkening the log, but it's a good idea indeed.

[William Dickson]

Very nice Dan.....I agree with darkening the log a little....It sort of competes with the bird a little....Great BG and FG and I really like the pose and the way the feet are on the log....Nice HA and POV....I love the 'swampy' feel about the frame....

Will

[Brian Sump]

Daniel, great frame. Almost feels like this fella is on vaca or something haha. Actually quite a tropical feel to it with the effect of palms behind.

Really great tones in this one. The green moss effect is quite stunning. Love it!

[Dorian Anderson]

Only think I would add would be to drop the luminosity in the yellow channel so that we get less glare and more color on those yellow legs! Looks great for ISO 6400, but I guess that's where the R6 bests the R5.

[Steve Kaluski]

Dorian the R5 can handle ISO6400 very well, but when you go into these highs you must get the exposure bang on, this minimises any noise and therefore much smaller amounts of NR is needed. If you have to lift an image due to poor exposure, you will need more NR and greater sharpening, therefore the ‘washing machine cycle’ is something to be avoided at ALL costs.