First Keeper 500mm image

[Paul Lagasi]

Ever since I got my first digital camera and lens I've always wanted a lens that was good at distance. Most lenses work well when your in close..but some of the birds I've wanted to get images of...never let you get close.
After lots of thought I decided to break down, spend the money and get a 500 mm from Nikon.
I finally took it out last night, this was one of the images..it won't win any awards for head angle or color, or even lighting...but taken with my D70 (d300 in shop) at about 300 yards I'll take this anyday.....
Thanks for looking

d70
Nikon 500 f4 vr 2
f11
1/200
iso640
tripod vr on
edited, cropped in CS4

[denise ippolito]

Beautiful Paul, Big congrats on the new lens!! I love the pale cyan color tones on the water, might try to take it off the bird. Maybe run some NR in the BG for this beauty. Fantastic pose and very nice details. I like your comp.very much.

[Susan Candelario]

Big Congrats on the new lens! Good advice offered by Denise. Like the shadow of the Egret in the water.

[Arthur Morris]

Good luck with the lens; don't drop it! I love the bird, the SH, and the REFL. But not the blue cast. To get it WHITE, I needed to lose the frame. Sorry.

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Denise, Sandra and Artie...I took all your suggestions, removed the frame, and whitened the bird, came up with this..Hopefully I got it "WHITE" this time..:D

p.s...Drop my lens, only if my heart stopped at the same time..:confused:

[Cheryl Slechta]

Paul, congratulations on the lens! It looks like you're going to be taking some great shots with it if this is any indication:) Artie's repost really makes it shine.

[Kerry Perkins]

Big congrats on the new glass! I love the comp and reflection. As for color, I would suggest downloading this gray scale that I posted a while back. It can really be helpful when trying to get neutral whites, blacks, and midtones in your images. http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-PP-color-work

[Harshad Barve]

Big congrats on the new lens TFS this beautiful image

[denise ippolito]

Paul, The repost does look better.
Kerry, Thanks for the link. I just downloaded it and I think it will come in handy.

[Mark Fuge]

Very nice image and application, Paul.

Congrats on the lens! We all have that dream about some lens! Glad you were able realize yours.

As for the image, it is over the top, in my view. I love the angle of the approach, the colors and the reflection. :cool: ;)

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Have a blast with that lens Paul, looks like you are on your way.

[Michael Zajac]

Excellent image Paul. The repost really works well. Congrats on the new lens. See you in Avian.

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Paul, Beautiful image. Has a very calm, serene feel. Great pose and I love the composition and reflection. The repost looks good, though it seems to have lost some of the sharpness of the original especially on the reflection.