Black Crowned Night Heron Toe to Toe

[Ed Cordes]

This beauty was in Shark Valley last month. I really like the open mouth and the reflection.

1DMK2 with 300 f4. Evaluative metering at ISO 800 with EV + 1/3 and f 4 1/100. Fill Flash at EV - 2. Cropped a bit.

Thanks for looking. All comments most welcome.

[david cramer]

Great capture and nicely framed.

[Mike Milicia]

Great pose and reflection!
Nice inclusion of habitat ... the green leaves at the top and bottom make nice framing and also help take
attention away from the clutter.

Might like to see the bird a bit more to the right in the frame.

[Steve Maxson]

I like the pose and reflection, Ed, and agree that the green leaves make a nice framing element. The bird is sharp and the plume hanging down over the near shoulder is a plus. The included habitat is interesting without being overly distracting. The image could stand some CW rotation (if you take your ruler tool and line up the eyes, you'll see what I mean :) ). Well done.

[Randy Stout]

Ed:

I basically agree with our esteemed members. I might be inclined to do just a bit of gardening. The bright stick that projects to the right of the birds feet, would be very easy to remove, but unfortunately, its reflection would be more difficult. You might be able to burn it in a bit to darken it, without changing the impression of the reflection. I would also be tempted to darken several of the light sticks to the right of the bird, esp. the one that goes to the frame edge, which tends to pull my eye out of the frame.

I like it as it, just think it might help focus our attention more on the subject, with a little more tweaking.

Thands for sharing!

Randy