Ruffles

[Lance Peters]

Hi - had a awesome afternoon with a Egret catching tiny tiny fish for a snack.

Where to start - so many good images to choose from - O.K will start with the worst!

Spotted this guy out the front of my house yesterday afternoon catching these tiny fish, they are usually very skittish - so doned my stealth outfit and proceded to crawl on my belly up the river (only inches deep) from about 50-60 yards away - he happily fished o, I was able to get to within about 10 feet from him on the end (took best part of a hour or so). He was tottaly happy with my presence and continued to fish in the one spot happily. Git some great shots and some very sore elbows - was a bit worried about the camera getting wet but al is good.
So sorry going to bore you all with a few Egret shots over the coming weeks.

So onto this shot - I like the pose - BG is not ideal (thats what makes this the worst) but sometimes it is what it is. Love the water dropets frozen mid air.

D3
Nikon 300mmF2.8 with 1.7 Converter
F4.8
1/2500 th
0 EV
400 ISO
Hand held.

Pretty much full frame - cropped - sharpened - stick removed from sand.

Comments welcome as always....

[Harold Davis]

cool action captured! love reading the stories with the pics! as you said, bg is not ideal but everything else rocks!!

where did you have your AF sensor? which part of bird? i find these type birds difficult to focus on head/eye.

[Gus Cobos]

Great capture here Lance...I like the ruffled action. you have good eye contact and sharp details. your whites are in check...the background, I would lighten the black oof trees that contrasts with the birds head. also to the left in the background, I would clone out the vertical oof tree, which grabs the attention away from your subject...I like the composition...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

Hi Mr H - I had the AF on 3d tracking - activated on the eye (from memory) worked O.K.

Gus - agree on the BG techs - As i said - starting with the Worst.. will fix the BG after I sort out the other shots that require much less work. :)

[Nonda Surratt]

Good deal Lance! Not often you have too many good ones to choose from, BIG CONGRATS! Makes for a wonderful outing.

Can't wait to see the rest if this is the worst. Like it and the water drops kick.

[Julie Kenward]

I'd say this was worth the sore elbows. I could actually live with the BG if you managed to clone out those two dark lines in the sky on the left side. The tree/greenery doesn't really bother me all that much but the two dark smudgy lines kinda grab me. Actually, if you just chopped the photo right below the horizon line you'd have a fat pano crop and no need to clone. :D

I think you did a great job on the exposure. The whites look right on and there's a ton of detail in the feathers. You managed to freeze him from head to toe at f/4.8 - big score! The water drops are also a big extra - you really get a sense of motion from them and the ruffled feathers.

Good stuff! Can't wait to see the others!

[Alfred Forns]

Lance how do you expect that fine bird to make friends with you if you don't offer a morsel of food !!!

I like how you took your time and came up with a good behavior. Don't mind the bg much and feel its a fine image.

[denise ippolito]

Lance, If this is the worst I can't wait to see more-well done! BG only a little clean-up as Jules had sugg. color and details are great- love the action and your non-documentation style photo!

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Congrats lance, like the way you captured this guy.
Regards

[Lance Peters]

Dark lines removed

[Lance Peters]

dark lines removed....

[Julie Kenward]

See? Minor distraction all gone. One, two three, buh-bye!

[Desmond Chan]

Very good, Lance !

Looking forward to your best one in the series.

[Jeni Williams]

Love the repost Lance!! Sore elbows must be worth it. Can't wait to see the others!
Was interested in reading bout your camo suit - I'm thinking of getting a top so long though people around here will be convinced I'm totally nuts!

[Lance Peters]

Love the repost Lance!! Sore elbows must be worth it. Can't wait to see the others!
Was interested in reading bout your camo suit - I'm thinking of getting a top so long though people around here will be convinced I'm totally nuts!

HI Jeni - only a figure of speech for getting low and crawling on my stomach - amazing how much of a differnce it makes you can get so close. :)