Juvenile Spoonbill

[WIlliam Maroldo]

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO640~F11~1/160 sec~aperture priority~11-21-2009~Brays Bayou, Houston, Texas~CS4
Overcast. Didn't use tripod, but tree trunk(which I was hiding behind to get so close). F11 a bit of overkill, but the bill was usually pointed other than straight up and down as here.
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill
today it was cloudless and sunny, :( so I threw together some images posted here at BPN (mostly at OOTB) . BPN stuff

[Harold Davis]

cool pose. i like the staring down the barrel look. might crop a hair off the left. there is some noise in the bg and on the bird. there also seems to be a green? color cast in the pink feathers. i'm guessing reflection off the water. i like the bg a lot.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Lots of details and cool pose. Love the BG.
Congrats

[Lance Peters]

Like the in your face composition - just the NR on the background.
Nice one :)

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the in your face look, the sharpness and details on the beak are great. I would run another round of NR on this.

[Alfred Forns]

I like it a lot William Excellent crop and sharp, just wish the bg was different ... btw with these a little fill flash sure helps !!!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

a good looking guy , u got there william , verry nice image . well done .

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Great look, like you said Bill, maybe swap aperture for shutter - love the pose.
Nice job hiding, I cannot get with a city block of these guys. I have never seen one this close.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I appreciate the feedback! I hadn't applied any NR, now that you guys mention it the BG certainly needs it. As far as the bird goes, I am hesistant to use NR in that I would loose details. Oh yes, fill flash would have helped. I have a flash that worked real well til it sort of got rained on when I was out shooting pics. I knew the camera could handle it, but apparently not so with the the flash. Need to send it in for repair. regards~Bill