GBH Close up

[Bryan Hix]

This is from this past May. I was in a blind early taking photos of wood ducks and out of the corner of my eye, this heron flew about 10 yards away from me. The sun had just risen and the light was great. This is one of my favorite photos of all the GBHs I have. Probably because it's so up close and personal.

Canon 1D Mk3
Canon 500mm w/1.4x TC
ISO 640, f/7.1, 1/1000
Manual exp, spot meter
PSE7, sharpen, selective bg blur + NR BG only

[Danny J Brown]

Bryan - I can see why you love this shot as the perfect clarity of the subject is balanced by the wonderful light and color. I like the background because I can sense the wetland setting even though its all in blur. As always, I love the dagger shaped bill on these critters. This one would get an A+ were it not for the three shafts of vegetation rising up through/behind the face area. Very nice image!

[Harshad Barve]

This is beautiful image , lovely compo , nice BG , great details and lighting is surreal here, How I wish this was in my files
TFS

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Head angle, light and eye contact look good and wish the vertical lines in the BG were less prominent.

[Bryan Hix]

Sounds like the vegetation in the BG is troublesome. I tried playing with the blur more, but I didn't like the results. I guess it is what it is.