Green!

[Juan Aragonés]

Each day I enjoy more and more making images in which the bird is surrounded by part of its environment. In this kind of images, the bird keeps the role of main subject instead of the fact that, at first glance, is difficult for the eye to locate it in the composition. This is exactly how I see purple herons in most of my visits to Brazo del Este. Many times when I am driving in the roads between rice fields the only sign of birds that I can have is just a small and subtle movement of a long, S shaped, neck hiding between the grasses, pointing the bill up. Then you stop the car and one, two, sometimes even more unnoticed birds flushes from their invisible cover, suddenly. With some training and experience the human eye is able to interpret those subtle movements in the green sea of grasses and to detect the eyes of a purple, squacco, little or grey heron hiding in the rice fields. When that happens, the bird remain motionless allowing a few seconds for a composition job and it is a joy for a birder and for a photographer.
This image is from the past summer in Brazo del Este, near Doñana National Park in Spain and it was made in the nice company of a BPN fellow that was visiting Spain. He allowed me to try his D3 with my 500VR and this one is part of the result. Hope you like this image and feel free to comment and criticize it.

:)

[Ilija Dukovski]

Hey where's Waldo?

Just kidding. Very nice image. The uniformity of the green plants is excellent and sets the tone very nicely.
Ideally the bird would be turned slightly toward the center of the image instead away from it.
Also the 3-4 reeds would ideally not cover part of the face, but the image is great as presented too.

Hope to see more like this one.

[Juan Aragonés]

Hey where's Waldo?

:D:D:D

Ideally the bird would be turned slightly toward the center of the image instead away from it.

Very good point Ilija, I totally agree to you :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Awesome image. from the thumbnail, I thought you put it in the wrong forum :-) Along with the head turn, I'd prefer the placement also to be more towards the center at rule-of-thirds.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Well seen Juan

[denise ippolito]

Juan, I like the placement of the bird. The little head peeking up is very cute. I might take a tiny bit of the OOF FG out but this is a very nice colorful image with alot of appeal. I agree w/ Kaustubh - well seen.

[Michael Zajac]

Juan, Interesting image and I agree w/ a bit off the bottom. The grass in front of the bird does not bother me it looks camouflaged.

[Dave Leroy]

Interesting composition as well as story. Well done to get both eyes. I also would like to see a bit less on bottom. A very nice idea and good show. Dave

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I find this pretty cool, great composition, setting and idea. I might remove the two tiny blades of grass in front of the bird.

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Juan, I wasn't sure what to expect when I open this image based on the thumb-nail. However I glad I as I laughed out loud. I really enjoyed the image for being different, creative, and humorous. I also agree with the positives above. Thanks for sharing.

[David Thomasson]

Outstanding! -- for all the reasons others have mentioned. I have to see things, so I tried cropping 20% off the bottom and flipping the bird (so to speak) horizontally so he's facing into the frame.

[Arthur Morris]

Though I agree in part with Ilija, I love it as presented. Great job by David on the flip! I like the o-o-f stuff on the bottom and would leave it.

[Harshad Barve]

beautiful image and lovely colors , I liked this very much as posted
TFS

[Dan Busby]

Very nicely done Juan. I don't mind the grass blades across the face because you've got the two eyes popping out. Nice artistic presentation that reminds me that not all good bird photos are frame-filling portraits or action shots.

[James Salywoda]

Very well seen Juan and an excellent composition.

[Juan Aragonés]

Thanks a lot for your input, I really apreciate :)

Very good suggestions by the way. I like the idea of flipping the bird in the frame to make him face to the right. I think that I didn´t noticed the fact that the bird is facing to the wrong direction until Ilija pointed out. Dave has found an smart and simple solution for the problem and I like it a lot. I have to see my files and look for the case I have another image of this guy facing to the right but if I could not find any it is for sure that I will apply Dave´s solution :)

[arash_hazeghi]

Beautiful Juan, love this behavioral shot and the vibrant habitat, sometimes it is nice to concentrate on the habitat and this is one good example.

[Kiran Poonacha]

I like the OP bhai, very creative frame indeed.. congrats.

[Mital Patel]

thats really awesome compo i really liked that.

[Ramon M. Casares]

This is just stunnnig! Terrrific Juan. Big congratulations!!

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Juan,
Great setting and nice to have both eyes there to focus on. I would keep your original crop but would flip it like David showed. Otherwise an exellent shot!