White Egret

[Peter Farrell]

I very seldom get this close to one of these. Taken from my car off a bridge. (no traffic).
Sony A230, Sony 70-400G @400mm, f5.6, 1/800, iso200, ec +0.7.
PP in elements 8, on the egret I increased shadows on the whites, increase saturation on the beak and sharpened. For the BG I increased contrast, darkened slightly and blurred. FG was darkened slightly. Cropped to 60% of FF.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Peter You had good light for that bird (cloudy) to be able to give a + 2/3 comp .. worked well !!

Other than getting out of the car which you could not do, you made the best possible image from your position, about all you could have done (minor) is placing the bird slightly right some more and having he head parallel to the film plane.

Lots of stuff on the bg but I like it, shows the fishing ground of the bird and having caught a prey !! btw with these environmental type images which I like very much, experiment showing more and see what they look like. I am not able to judge in camera well so I give myself options for later !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Peter - agree with AL and if you had got out of the car - he probably would have flew off.

Great timing - like the action. Did the best possible given the circumstances :)
Looking forward to seeing more :)