High-Key Great Blue Heron

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Sony A700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO 640~1/1000sec~F5.6~5-17-09~Surfside,Texas~overcast
This is full frame, and instead of cropping or adding canvas I thought I'd I'll keep it as it is.
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

1. Looking at this image I'm impressed with your exposure, excellent job in exposing the bird against such bright sky.
2. I know this is fullframe but IMO I think it would be better if the whole top of this power pole is included because it shows the GBH in an urban kind of environment (wild bird landing on utility pole). With this image it only shows the bird landing on some random structure and I also find the object under the tail taking my attention away. Hope you don't mind me sharing my opinion.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Sihn:Not only do I not mind you you sharing your opinion, I agree. Very good points. Good critique. The title is very important in establishing a context, and I should have included "utility pole". I also thought about the object under the tail, and the lower legs being hidden,the subject being more or less centerred, and only a hint of the wooden cross structure, but I didn't want to influence the critique by pointing these out.
After I posted this image, I went back and looked at a number of images of the same bird, utility poles, a nest with nestlings on an adjacent pole with the mate of this bird , and was wondering why I posted this one. I guess it was the exposure and feather detail.
regards~Bill

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

What I like about it is what probably prompted you to post it. Very nice exposure and pose.

I do think the hand of man bits undermine the image. Shooting angle also pretty steep, as you would expect on top of a pole!

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the pose and eye contact and agree that the setting and angle are not ideal.

[Mark Dumbleton]

Agree on shooting angle - super exposure on this! Like the open wing pose of the bird and colours look good.
Not a fan of the "hand-of-man" images, but I can see what you tried to do here and I like it.