Eurasian Bittern

[Markus Jais]

EOS 40D, 4/500 + 1.4, from car.
f5.6, 1/80, ISO 400

LR2: warmed it up a little and set clarity to 66.

This species is very rare and endangered in many parts of Europe due to habitat destruction.

This image was taken at the Neusiedler See National Park in Austria (great for bird watchers and photographers) last year in April.
I will be again at this fantastic place in two weeks and hopefully can photography more bitterns.

The shot is not as sharp as I wanted it to be but I hope it is still ok (the light was bad and I had only 1/80. I probably should have used ISO 800). It may also be a bit softer due to quality settings of 7 in PS to get it below 200K. One of more PS skills than me could have probably made it better.

Do you find the plants in front of the bird at the right distracting?


Markus

[arash_hazeghi]

Markus I don't find the FG plant distracting at all except for maybe the oof green strand to the left, I love the inclusion of habitat and excellent pose in this picture, looks like the bird is carefully coming out of hiding! The only issue here is the rather soft head compared to the body, if possible sharpen the head more.

[Scott Frye]

Congrats on getting this shot of a uncommon bird. The foreground vegetation looks good to me -- but the green stalk coming out the top of his head could be taken out.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, I like the soft light, curious pose and eye contact. I would sharpen the bird more and give it more room at the bottom for the 'virtual feet'.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Congratulations as the bitterns are hard to find out in the open. Love the low angle and action you captured in this image as well as the excellent detail . Thanks for sharing Markus.

[Stu Bowie]

Markus, Bitterns are normally very shy, so you have done very well to have captured him in the open. The plants are not distracting at all, but would maybe try and sharpen him a tad more.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

OOF plants not distracting to my eyes. Only big issue, as you noted, is sharpness. But hey....for a rare bird, this is an awesome shot I'd say.