Purple Heron

[Stu Bowie]

My first decent shot of one of these guys.

Canon 50D
100-400 L IS USM @ 400mm
1/2000
F/6.3
ISO 640

Exp comp +0.67
Hand held

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Nice to see a new heron! I love the stripes on his neck.

Well exposed. To my eye, the birds eye isn't as sharp as the wing root area. It probably could stand a little selective sharpening of the eye.

The birds angle in the frame is nice, head looks just a bit turned away, but close.The near wing is beautifully displayed, wish we could see a bit more of the far wing.

Nice sky.

Post some more of this guy if you have them.

Cheers.

By the way, he looks pretty big. How does he compare to a GBH size wise?

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Decent? Yes. Good light, love that near wing. Good colours and exposure (save for the hot spot on the face) look good. Not crazy about the far underwing shadow forming a black triangle over the head...it is what it is, but I would have preferred that far wing higher. Face is unfortuantely turned slightly away...

[Stu Bowie]

Randy, Daniel, thanks for the kind words.

Randy, this heron is the same size as our Grey Heron, and Black headed Heron, which would then be the same as your blue heron I guess. We have another Heron which is called the Goliath Heron, but then you guessed by the name he's a little larger than the above.

[Doug Brown]

Love the near wing detail Stuart! Far wing position could be better, as Daniel mentioned. I might tone down the head a little, and I do wish the bird were looking slightly towards you.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Great pose, light, colors, detail, sharpness and comp, I like this shot a lot. Congratulations!

[Herb Houghton]

Nice colors and lighting on this bird. I agree with toning down the head. Thanks for sharing this unusual heron.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great colors and I don't mind the wing positions, though I would probably prefer both to be "fully up" more so than almost up. And it is super sharp. Congrats! :)

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Thanks for sharing this beautiful picture.

A very elegant heron.
Very nice light, sharpness and right wing. The rest has been mentioned.

[Dave Barnes]

Nice capture Stu, this pic shows the colours very well. It looks like you are picking up a bit of noise on the brown/leading edge of the near wing? (Could be from compression)

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much.

[Chris Kotze]

Well flight angle and super detail and light

[Ken Watkins]

Beautiful bird, well captured.
The "black shadow" over its head is in fact the colour of his/her head.

[Stu Bowie]

Chris, Ken, thanks for looking and for your comments. Much appreciated.