Snowy Egret at Gilbert Water Ranch (Gilbert, Arizona)
I was shooting a Green Heron on the branch when this showy snowy landed and I had just a few seconds to get off some shots before he flew off again. This is at full frame and I was shooting at AV piriroty. I was really surprised to see that the camera chose such a high shutter speed for the grab shot.
1/8000 at f5.6 and ISO800 EC +1/3
Bigma at 417mm
Canon 40D
Super detail Scott, and love the posture. There is evidence of a bit of oversharpening, and I would tone down the hot spot on his back. You had plenty ss to bring down your ISO.
Nice snowy with some issues caused by the lighting. I believe the light was pretty high and to your right. Some of the whites are sig. overexposed. I suspect you had the + compensation set for the green heron, but you should have dialed in some minus here. The camera pushed up the shutter speed to try and prevent overexposure at that ISO and aperture. On my Nikons, I am almost always at .-7 to -1.0 in this circumstance(white bird, dark background) ,if shooting in aperture priority.Your camera will meter differently of course, but the concept is the same.
This is a very high contrast situation, with blocked blacks and blown whites. Its a tough one for sure.
I know you didn't have much time. When I am shooting some dark, some white birds in the same setting, I am constantly going back and forth on the compensation. I have memorized the settings, so when I see a white bird fly in, I dial in the compensation without even looking at the readout, and am ready to shoot right away.
Manual exposure of course is an option, but often you are going to various lighting situations, where you have to reset constantly, so aperture priority may be the best choice.
The pose and hairdo look great, I also like the soft light but the bird does look oversharpened and is a bit tight in the frame for my taste. I hope you will be able to recover the whites on the back.
I liked the pose a lot. I know a ot of pople dont like square compositions...but IMO a square crop with a little more room on the right than there is right now would serve this better. The bird is oriented in a very unusual way.
Frizzled Snowy
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