Snowy coming at you

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thought it humorous how the Snowy took off looking straight into the lens. Thanks in advance. Best, JR

Canon 40D, 500F4IS, 1/1000, F4, ISO 400, Manual Exposure, Gitzo w/ Mongoose 3.5a

[Connie Mier]

What a perfect set up for a vertical shot. The head looks sharp, so excellent shot capturing that. I like the little bit of tail feather sticking out too.

[Randy Stout]

John;

Great angle on this one, water droplets,intense stare.

The shallow DOF hurts this image. The OOF lower wings are such a strong visual element here, being forward and white, that their being blurry effects the image.

If only we could train the birds to warn us when they are going to do this type of thing!

Randy

[Chris van Rooyen]

Dramatic angle, but oh so difficult to capture:-) But you did well here, OOF wings do not bug me too much. Sharpness on the head is great and helps to focus the eye.

[Mital Patel]

this is really difficult shot to obtain specially if you are unaware of the momentum of the bird. you did really well with the big gun so quickly. I woudlnt mind any loss of detail and oof or blur over wings as the moment is beautifully captured (entirely my choice dont know bout others).

For me this works fully

[Stephen Stephen]

John well captured. The sharp head focus, eye contact and water drops make this image for me.

[Stu Bowie]

Great headon shot John, and love the direct eye contact. The motion blur of the wings dont bother me, as the head is pin sharp.

[DanWalters]

Great eye contact and I really like the drops of water underneath the egret.

[Suzanne Huot]

Certainly makes for an interesting and different angle on the usual birds taking off

[Arthur Morris]

Wicked pose, framing, water droplets, sharpness, and wing and foot positions. I am gonna guess that this is a crop from a HORZ original.....

[Harshad Barve]

awesome pose with nice sharp head , wing pose and dripping water
TFS

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you all for the feedback. I am glad I posted it as I was hesitating as so many things seemed to be wrong with the image - the background and the detailless whites foremost. But I thought that the sharp head as basically the only in focus part, the OOF wings framing it and the in your face nature make an interesting composition. Glad you liked it.

And yes, it is a (pretty heavy) crop from a horizontal frame.

Thanks, JR