Project Feathers: Little Green Heron

[Ken Lassman]

Love these little guys...usually see them standing like frozen statues just above the water line. This one was climbing up the Fire Flag stalk and the wind caused the back feathers to rise up...just for Fabs' project

NikonD300
Nikon 75-300 (150mm)
IS0 400
f/6.3 @ 1/1000

[Randy Stout]

Ken:

Strong colors, nice flipped up feathers.
Critical focus appears to be on the crossing branch in front of bird, which makes it rather distracting.
Some noise and jpeg artifacts in background.

Do you have any more in this series?

Cheers

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The fluffed-up pose is great, I agree with Randy that the camera focused on the branch in front of the bird.

[Ken Lassman]

Thanks Randy and Axel....the wind was pretty brisk and the stalk was moving...probably the reason for the focus point. Not sure if faster SS would change that. I did not run NR in order not to lose any feather details nor did I really look to eliminate any artifacts....love the flipped up feathers also and posted it specifically for the project.....now that you guys think it was pretty good I will go back and work on it

[Daniel Cadieux]

Man, those feathers really made this guy a really good subject for this month's project!:) Mother Nature does have a knack at putting obstacles in front of our subjects, doesn't she! A faster SS would not have helped with the focus, but rather setting your focus point somewhere on the head or bill with autofocus set to "Continuous" (is that the Nikon term?) to follow the swaying heron...and maybe with some short bursts to ensure one of them is sharp on the bird. When applying NR you can do so selectively to the BG only...this way you won't lose any feather details.

[Ken Lassman]

Thanks Daniel...it was all about the fluffed up feathers as soon as I saw it. I was shooting on Continuous and AF but the wind was causing the stalks to sway 6 to 8 inches in both directions....and the stalk in front of the Heron was moving even more going across the head and eye (have several frames either blurred or covering the eye)..so I did move my focal point downward. Cant blame Mother Nature for the obstacle...I will take the blame and put it in my learning experience file :(

[Fabs Forns]

There's also something funky going on in the BG, like posterization?

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Ken, love those feathers - one of my favourite birds too! Thanks for posting this - I am enjoying it very much despite the branches - brings back memories of my time in S Florida :cool:

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

All has been said Ken. Love those ruffled feathers !!!!!! Great eye to capture all this !!! congrats.;)

[stuart wanuck]

again love the ruffled look congrats