Least Bittern Feeding

[Jose Suro]

This is a very worked image. There was a reed in front of the bird and I cloned it out. I had about 50 images in this sequence, with the bird in slightly different positions so I was able to grab some of the missing bird from another shot. These are hard birds to shoot!! Plus it was cloudy so the SS were very low. It was eating these very small shrimp-like crustaceans. My friend Rich got a shot with one of these things in its mouth! Shot at the Viera Wetalnds, Florida

Thanks for looking.

Best,

Jose

D300 - 200~400VR + 1.4xTC - 1/200s @ F5.6 - ISO 400 - Handheld leaning against car - Manual exposure

[Steve Ashton]

Jose, this looks very nice to me. The work you have done has paid off. Seems to be some slight distortion just below cent of birds neck and into water. Guess this is were you removed the reeds.

Saturation is strong with nice range of tones and sharpness.

[Jim Poor]

Real nice. Looks like a good job on the cloning. I always like to try to guess where the work was done. But I'd really be guessing on this one. I don't mind the lack of eye contact because the bird is busy looking at something else and it is obvious in the image.

I don't know how everyone else feels, but I'd really like to see the originals (even in a smaller size) on images that have had a good bit of PS magic performed. I think it could be educational.

[Arlene Spagna]

Sounds like a good suggestion when a lot of PS is applied.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the feet and the sharpness and the light but the head facing away pretty much never works for me... Good job on the reed. Later and love, artie

ps: It is A-OK to post a jpeg representative of the RAW image as long as it is one image/pane.

[Steve Maxson]

Nice composition. I like the bird's intensity. The greens look oversaturated on my monitor. Maybe lighten the photo overall.

[Mejnour]

Very nice capture Jose,

Just a little eye contact would give a +++

Congratulation

Rémy