Black-headed Heron

[Chris van Rooyen]

The herons at our local bird sanctuary have started breeding. I obtained this image over the weekend right at the end of the day. I like the suggestion of habitat and the light conditions were quite extraordinary. Comments welcome as always and thanks for looking.

Camera Model: NIKON D3S
Date/Time: 2010:08:01 17:09:45
Shutter speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure mode: Manual
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 2200
Lens: 600mm

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent Chris, love the details and BG, nice pose too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great mood, inclusion of the habitat, light, sharpness and pose. There are a few jpg artifacts in the BG.

[christopher galeski]

nice one Chris,love the lighting,good BG,and the action of the bird.thanks.

[Kiran Poonacha]

sweet light and great pose bhai, loved the overall setting too.... well done..

[Stu Bowie]

Great landing posture Chris, and I like the late afternoon light and the overall sharpness of the heron.

[Michael Zajac]

I like the landing pose and the sharpness

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Chris, I am a big fan of side and back light. IMO, those are harder to pull off and process. This is spectacular. very dramatic. Superb pose and loved the habitat inclusion.

[Fabs Forns]

I think you keep the Van Rooyen light in a bottle :)
Very nice as presented, with detail in both highlights and shadows.
Our next month's project will be birds in habitat, so save us some!

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks everyone for the comments, appreciated as always! Fabs, thanks, I guess its one of the advantages of living in South Africa, we have no shortage of sunshine;)

[Rich Steel]

Chris

I wish you could send some sunshine this way as we seem to descend in to the usual summer pattern of grey gloom. The light is beautiful in this photo and combined with the pose and setting all add up to a very fine image.

Cheers

Rich

[Mark Dumbleton]

Super image Chris! Great light and like the inclusion of environment.

[Jay Tan]

Nice open wing landing pose. The light is sweet!