I'm off to Costa Rica on Friday to lead a photo tour with quite a few BPN members, some of whom I'll have the pleasure of meeting for the first time. I photographed this Tiger-Heron from a small boat in Tortuguero. Shooting wide open gave me the soft FG and BG I was looking for (I applied no blurring to the image in PP). Hopefully we'll all get some great images on this year's trip!
Canon 1D Mark III, 500mm + 1.4x, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 800, no flash, hand held from wobbly little boat :)
I love your concept here Doug. Having both the FG and BG OOF isolates the bird and focuses attention on his head. I would suggest that you brighten the head some, at least the eye.
I love it and wouldn't change a thing, the comp, the light, the pose, the detail, the FG, the BG, the colors, all is superb IMHO. Congratulations for what I think is a terrific shot.
I also like the OOF BG FG elements here Doug; not sure if a little fill flash would have helped, but perhaps. Great work mate! Hope you enjoy your tour to Costa Rica. Look forward to seeing many great images from down there. Congrats!
Nice image Doug. I like the mysterious look the OOF grasses offer. I did see a couple of Tiger Herons on Rios Pacaure but I had no camera because we were white-water rafting at the time. It was still a marvelous trip. Enjoy yours!
Although not fluffy white clouds, this image has a dreamy feel to it thanks to your excellent use of OOF FG elements. The image may benefit from a bit of warming of the colour temp. Good luck in Costa Rica...looking forward to seeing some of your results! :-)