Strike

[Jorge Rodrigues]

Hi,

Just came from a two week vacation trip to Egypt. This is (I think) a Butorides Striatus (related but not the same as the Little Green Heron). Took this with a 300mm f/4 lens from 4m away in Sharm el Sheikh (South Sinai, Egypt). The bird was completely in the shade when I took the shot.

My main doubts about this image are the background and the eye being partially covered. Comments are welcome.

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, handheld, 300 f4 L IS@ f4, 1/2000 in manual mode.

[Randy Stout]

Jorge:

I find it an effective image. The simple surroundings work well for me. The eye can be worked on a bit and should present well. I would be tempted to go with even more of a pano crop because of the pose of the bird, and get rid of most of the foreground up to the reflection. The bubbling water under the bird adds a sense of motion to it.

Cheers

Randy

[Raul Quinones]

Great timing, I like the background, I will consider to clone out the darker blue spot directly above the bird head and raising a bit the saturation.

Saludos, Raul

[Arthur Morris]

I like the blue at the top. The eye is an easy fix. I like this a lot, esp. the sharpness of the head mid-strike. The only thing that bugs me is that the bird head and neck is angled slightly away from you. That could have been eliminated with one big step to your left.