Picasso's Heron

[pat lillich]

:o or maybe - herons at an exhibition? not sure - but the impressionist background and the picasso-ish bird make me grin.


I believe it is a Green Heron.

canon 7d, 400 f/4 DO, iso 800 1/1600 sec at f/5.6 manual, handheld

cropped in LR with clarity and contrast added, LAB curves adjustment to intensify the colors just a little more (because they needed it, right?) NR on background and smart sharpening on heron in CS5

hope you enjoy it as much as I do ! (one of the few times I would have rather had a lovely simple white egret in front of me than this beautiful heron)

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice one Pat. Great pose, colors and nice effect with BG. Might take off some on L side and top to focus more in on bird. I know what you mean about having a white heron instead. Maybe if you lightened up the BG, it would give more contrast between bird and BG.

[Bill Dix]

Hi Pat. I love the painterly effect of the BG - not sure how you accomplished that. Pose is great. I wonder what it would look like if you ran a bit of S/H on the bird?

[Bill Stubbs]

Pat, That is indeed a green heron. Interesting pose; I like it, if only because if you observe and photograph these little guys much, you'll find they often get into unusual positions while scratching or preening, like this one did; an amusing little subject, thoroughly in character.

[Peter Farrell]

Definetley an interesting pose and Bg, I like both. Light looks a little harsh on the birds back and I wish for a better perch.
Peter

[Julie Kenward]

I think everyone has covered my comments. I would definitely look at making this a vertical instead of a horizontal because the body of the bird is so long and the perch isn't the best - might as well bring out the tallness of the bird and not the slope of the perch.

I'd also look at doing a shadow/highlight adjustment and then either brighten or darken the BG depending on where the bird's feathers end up. You can also desaturate the BG a tiny bit and increase saturation on the bird a small amount and that will pull the viewer's eye to the bird.

[pat lillich]

thanks folks,

for your kind input.

I wasn't really thinking of it as a keeper, I loved the background (reflections on the pond behind the bird, no modifications - didn't even notice the pond when i took the photo was too focused on the bird) and the silly pose of the bird - (Bill - i'm going to keep watching now that I know a place where they hang out regularly) and just wanted to share it as an example of over-the-top-ness.

I just thought it was a funny example - a lot of the time i'm wishing i had a better background, and othertimes i'm wishing for a more interesting bird - and here i have both and i'm still not happy!

take care and hope you all have a great weekend with lots of light and birds.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

(Bill - i'm going to keep watching now that I know a place where they hang out regularly)

So, Pat... where might that be? :)

Interesting pose... one of those just can't reach that itch things...

Cheers,

-Michael-