Took a trip at early yesterday morning and for a change we actually had some good light (a rare event in the UK). It was low tide and we are just coming out of a period of big 30ft tides on the estuary at the moment so the water had dropped a long way leaving wet gulleys which the herons and Little egrets were feeding in. This is a heron that was just coming in to land in one of the gulleys the tide had cut through one of the sand bars.
Taken with 1D mk3 with 500mm lens with 1.4TC handheld. ISO 400 ~F8 at 1/2000s.
Nice light and landing pose, good detail in right-wing feathers, good overall sharpness. The sandbar to the left distracts from the right wing, but that was part of the experience so don't think it's a candidate for PS elimination. Interesting to compare this bird with gray wings to our North American great blue heron. Thanks!
Good exposure, nice landing pose, and sharp detail. Unfortunately the background does detract from the image The small sandbar behind the right wing is a distraction, as are the two sand lumps in the lower left corner. It would also be better if the line between the blue water and brown sand did not in
tersect the birds neck and wing. I don't think you could have done much about the background in this circumstance. I hope your good weather continues!
Hey Rich, I really love the feel, mood, colors and sharpness in the ORIG but felt that it was too SQ so I used a QM to move the two rocks llc and your credit line up. Then I got rid of the sandbar (which I sort of liked...) Red mud in nice light is quite stunning (as is red dirt as I learned on my recent trip to Bonaventure).
All in all a wonderful image.
ps: Forgot to mention that I love the swirlies in the water and the pose, wing position, and head angle on the bird.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
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Many thanks for the replies and comments. I got some other photos that morning of the birds flying over just a pure undulating sand background which are quite interesting so I will probably post one of these on my next post. I found elements of the background distracting but decided in the end that the pose of the bird and great light probably outweighed them.
Artie, many thanks for taking the time to undertake a reprocess and repost. Certainly looks improved with a less square crop :)
You are most welcome Rich. I like some SQ COMPs, but this one bugged me; not sure why... Look forward to seeing more red mud!
ps: Thanks loads for your membership support!
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Grey Heron
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