If you've seen some of my other images, you know I lean towards the artistic slant. I've been working on this image for some time and can't get it right. I will post my orginal also.
Taken Sept. 7, 2009 with canon 1dMKIIN with 500mm f4 IS @ f4 1/3200 ISO 800
I was taking some images with this heron farther away and got the bird in the frame without problems, even with the outstretched wings, then he started running towards me and passed through some beautiful light.
IMHO, there's not much to be done to save this image, the wing tip could be recovered but the original comp is really hard to improve as the second post feels too tight and the OP has just WAY TOO MUCH untidy photoshop work, the image has even lost a lot of quality.
Nice pose, though... you should try to leave more room al arround for action shots as you cannot predict what poses the bird might give you, specially if you have a fixed focal lenght lens, it is always better to have to crop a bit IMO... that would be the only advice I could give you... I don't really found the OP artistic to be honest... but that is just my honest subjective opinion :)
I like Ian's crop but I also like the starting point background. It blends in with the overall image, which I like better than the bright yellow contrast. Comments re allowing room when capturing shot are good, though I know that's not always possible.
Thanks all for your comments.
Appreciate your comments Ramon.
I like 2 kinds of bird images. 1 environmental images showing the environment and on these I hate to touch a twig in post work. 2 is artistic images which is what I consider this image. Thus when you say I wasn't honest with the image--well I'm entitled to artistic interpretation.
But Ramon and everyone please continue to comment as it gets me thinking and I value your points.