Black-crowned Night Heron

[Kerry Perkins]

Hanging out at the edge of the pond, waiting for the fish truck to arrive and stock the pond for the fisher-persons. I found at least five of these fellows living at the local duck pond! He is standing on a slope so it looks like the image is tilted.

Workflow is LR2 for conversion and minor RAW tweaks then CS4 PS for final color and image adjustments including sharpening.

50D, EF400mm f/5.6L
Manual mode, f/5.6@1/4000 ISO 400 WB 5100K
AI Servo autofocus, hand-held no flash

Thank you for your comments!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Kerry - good looking bird!! Love that eye and the raised foot pose. Good HA and eye contact and sharp as a tack
The dark band of shadow in the BG is a little distracting - removing it would improve if it fits with your ethics.
Big congrats - like it a lot!!

[david cramer]

Agree about the dark band. Otherwise I love it and the detail is great. Light is a bit harsh, but I really like the catchlight you caught.

[Julie Kenward]

I agree with the others on the black band and the harsh lighting but I also feel it's a little oversharpened - if you look at the ground cover around the bird's feet it really begins to feel almost pixelated because it is so sharp. I'd back it down just a bit everywhere but the eye - that eye is super!

[Bill Dix]

Nice bird. Great red eye and feather detail, and exposure looks good to me. Ditto comments on the dark band. Feels just a bit tight in the frame for my taste. I don't notice the oversharpening but I don't always get that right.

[Julie Brown]

Love that eye detail Kerry.:D

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Whites look good for high contrast light. Fine feather detail, wish the black band was not there but what can one do. I am sure you moved around best you could. The eye is fantastic and in my opinion makes the image for me.

[Harold Davis]

another vote for removing the black strip!! exposure and detail look great to me!! did well in that semi-harsh light:)