Great Blue Heron

[Ben Harris]

D60 / 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR / Hand Held
300mm | f/8 | 1/400th | ISO 200 | +5/3 EV

Greetings all. First time poster, but I have thick skin. I'm not sure how my work will stack up due to gear. This photo is taken last summer on the last day of my vacation in Charlestown, RI. I ended up at the beach at low tide and was lucky enough to have this GBH pose for me (along with his cousin the Green Heron) for almost three hours.

If my post does not adhere to the rules here fully, please inform me so I can make changes.

See a higher res version here.
See full EXIF data here.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Ben Big Warm Welcome !!!

I like how you are getting around the focal length by making a pleasing image using the bg element !! Having birds look out of the frame is acceptable but different, in this case its interesting and I have no problem with it ... will get different replies which will be interesting.

I like having the birds in the bg which makes the composition but one thing that you need to do is be accurate with the focus placement, head of the bird is not sharp ! Processing is not bad, would like seeing the bird a little brighter !! Looking forward to the next one !!

btw also looking forward to comments, this will be one interesting image, hope all will give thoughts !! ..... and gear wise it will not be a problem, can make high quality images with it .. just keep in mind limitations ex here isolating the gb would not have been an option. .. btw don't be afraid to raise the ISO a bit more !!

[Julie Brown]

Hi Ben. Good advice from Al. I like the OOF birds in the BG, but somehow the composition seems a bit unbalanced due to the tight crop on the bird to the left. IMO the heron needs more space to look toward. Do you have room to make this a horizontal?

[Ben Harris]

Thanks for the comments so far. Julie, I doubt that I had room to go landscape. It's been a while since I looked at the RAW, but I have to think that I would have gone LS if I could have.

Al, the sharpness thing is an issue I'm struggling with. Honestly, I think that a lot of the problem in this photo is speed. 1/400 isn't all that fast for a 300mm. I probably could have bumped the ISO up a stop, but the D60 gets very noisy if you don't hit the exposure perfectly at or above 400. It was a conscious choice to chance it with ISO 200.

I'm planning another trip to the salt pond in the next month or so, maybe I'll get an opportunity to re-shoot.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Ben

ISO 400 will be fine for your camera and more. Normal noise can be dealt with .. easily .. you won't have a problem as long as the exposure is correct, make sure you have data on the last box to the right.

btw at 1/400 you should be able to make a sharp images !! Would suggest to practice on a target and see what you can do shutter speed/sharpness wise !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ben - big warm welcome to BPN - dont hesitate to jump right in and leave comments on other peoples images - no better or faster way to improve your own skills - all we ask is that you say what it is you like or dont like about the image.
Nice First Post - Interesting composition with the bird looking out of the image - I like it.

It is possible to make great images no matter what the gear.

Here is a interesting read re equipment.
http://www.bythom.com/blame.htm

Looking forward to seeing more.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Ben,I welcome you also...
Looking at the comp I'm having difficulty making up my mind on it. I'm not sure but looking at the foreground heron my eye is constantly being pulled to the backround due to it's prominance. Usually the eye needs to rest in a comp but I'm tending to go back and forth constantly. I also agree about lightening the foreground bird a bit..
Interesting view...

[Harshad Barve]

Hi Ben - big warm welcome to BPN and excellent advise above , keep them coming , ETL is one forum where I learnt lot
TFS

[Desmond Chan]

This image looks like to me is about a heron giving up its family. If that's what you want your photo to be about, I think it's a success ;)

I've read that for some photographs, the viewer needs to look at every element in the photograph to understand what the photograph is about. So Ben, is there a story you want to tell between the two groups of birds or you just found it cool to compose your photograph this way? :D

[Ben Harris]

Start at the bottom and work my way up. Desmond, that would be a family like from Ice Age. To the best of my knowledge Double Crested Cormorants (which is what those are) and GBH aren't family. ;)

Harshad, thanks for the welcome, I'm very much impressed with the quality of the work here and I'm sure I'll learn a lot.

DMills, I'm not sure I picked the right photo to start with. I find that I'm not a great self-critic, and while I like this image a lot, technically it's not the greatest. I have better images, from this set, even. There's just something I like about this one. This is a down and dirty edit of the shot prior to the original post. I took 600 shots that afternoon and looking through them last I realized that I may not have picked the best shots.

Lance, I'm not blaming gear. I'm making the statement that the gear I have has limitations, as does all gear. This image necessarily isn't a good example (because it was taken ten months ago) but I feel like I'm bumping up against the limitations of a 300 5.6 recently. I've still got a ton of learning to do, and I know that.

[Harold Davis]

hi ben, welcome to bpn!! i like your first post. it's different than the norm and works for me. i think it's something that as you get better with your post processing you could revisit it and make it even better. i think there are a couple of filters that would make this sing!!!

[Ben Harris]

hi ben, welcome to bpn!! i like your first post. it's different than the norm and works for me. i think it's something that as you get better with your post processing you could revisit it and make it even better. i think there are a couple of filters that would make this sing!!!

No doubt PP is a weak point among several. I'm always open to suggestions.