Common folk are my friends

[Blake Shadle]

I had a great morning out at Ft. Desoto last Saturday morning. There weren't a lot of opportunities, and the water was really cold; but, if you wanted to create images, they were there to be had. This is one of my common folk friends, a Great Blue Heron. I've had very few opportunities to head out in the field lately, so whenever I do, I try to make the make the most of every opportunity. I made this image kneeling down, up to my read-end in cold cold water :)

Shooting Solution
Nikon D300 | Sigma 500mm f/4.5 | Manual Focus
Manual Exposure | 1/2000 @ f/5.6 | ISO 400 | Gitzo 1440 and the Mongoose M2.3

Comments welcome and much appreciated!

Thanks for looking :)

[Philip Pietri]

Love the long curved feathers on the neck. The pose really showcases the majestic size and persona of these birds. The morning light certainly made for a lovely picture as well. Excellent work.

[Don Thompson]

Nice low angle and light.

I get a laugh when I read post from everyone in Florida and other warm climates talking about cold water and air. We have solid water. :D

[Rene Quenneville]

Beautiful bird and light. Well composed. Wish you had a nicer ski behind.

[Juan Aragonés]

Blake the heron´s pose is very good and the intense eye contact is fantastic. Great low angle and lots of details in the plumage. The golden light works very fine but I think that the image is a litle bit overexposed. I checked the histogram and it looks great but I still think that the image would be much better if you tone down just a litle bit. :-)

[Don Lacy]

Wonderful light Blake and I like were you put the OOF shore line across the body so it is not distraction.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The pose and composition look great but the light puts it over the top for me. What do Floridians mean by 'really cold', 65 degrees? :)

[allanrube]

I also think darkening the image might help bring out the light more.

BTW, the water was not cold on Saturday. :D