Great Blue Heron

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. 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
1/1250 F/8 Matrix Metering EV +1 1/3 ISO 1600 Auto WB, image captured at 330mm (495mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic
Cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Learn more about Lake Morton 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]

Love the soft light, the BLUE tones, and the windblown feathers.

with love, artie

[Steve Kaluski]

Love the jaunty HA Joe and the pastel colours of the backdrop. Colour palette is sympathetic, I might try to get a bit more detail in the white crown feathers, something that should be easy to do now with Lr updates.

Nice one Joe.

TFS
Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

Gotta love those windswept plumes! Nice head-on pose, sharpness, and the "kink" in the neck adds to the quirkiness of the image. Nie BG too. Although all those blues are nice, I be tempted to try a version slightly warmed up. Good stuff Joe!

[Brian Sump]

Hi Joe,

A silly pose here and the offsetting plumes dancing really create some motion. Even though it's sort of in between head on and a one-eyed angle this still works well.

It does seem like warming a bit might help as the white in the crown appears a touch blue. A nice frame overall!

[Dorian Anderson]

Direct stare is great, and I really like the patterning on the neck; I'm not sure I've ever noticed how pretty it is. Focus on the eyes is nice, but i think the kinked neck makes for a difficult composition since the face is so far off center (in order to get the plumes).
I agree the frame is very blue, so it would be worth revisiting the white balance.

[Kurt Bowman]

Different and nice pose you managed here Joe! Nice and sharp at the eyes where it needs to be. Agree with others about the WB