Project: Bird in habitat - female least bittern in tall grass

[allanrube]

I shot this at Plum Island early one morning. I almost missed seeing the bittern, a common occurrence.
D2X Nikon 500mm with 1.4 tc 1/100 at 7.1 ec -.7 iso 400.

[Randy Stout]

Alan:

A nice habitat shot of the bittern, with complimentary colors in the grasses. Nice that you got a clean view of the eye, good head angle. Well exposed.

I might consider cropping it so the bittern is even a bit more to the right and down, but just personal preference.

I might toy with the idea of removing the two grasses that cross on either side of the eye.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

Hi Alan. Good shot of a tough bird to see, much less capture. Lovely habitat. My own personal preference would be to take just a tiny bit off top and right to put the eye at the ROT point, if anything. But I like the composition just as is.

[allanrube]

Thanks for comments Randy and Bill. I want to leave the grass in front of face as this is a habitat shot and the bittern was "in" the grass. It would have been different if the grass was covering the eye.

[Nico Steenberg]

Well done getting him in focus between the grass. Like the habitat a lot. IMG is well exposed with great colours ;)

[Arthur Morris]

I love this with the beautiful bird and the colorful grasses. You picked the perfect spot to put your tripod (or stop your car) and the perfect time to push the shutter button. I would not hate seeing more above and more on our left.