White-faced Herron - eye level

[Tom Rambaut]

Sunset last night.

7d, 500mm + 1.4ext, 1/1000 @ 6.3, 320iso. EV 0.

last for me of eye level theme.

Thanks Tom

[Mark Young]

Nice composition. Wish the bird wasn't looking away from you. This looks like it may have been taken at Longy?

[Randy Stout]

Tom:

Good shooting angle, agree with Mark about the head angle.

Like the raised foot. I might consider cropping up just a sliver from the bottom to downplay the dark foreground a bit, perhaps just slightly above your sig. line.

In looking at it longer, I might also consider cropping down from the top enough to eliminate the very top band. The pose lends it self to a pano style crop.

Cheers

Randy

[John Guastella]

Good detail and exposure - really like the raised foot, but the HA is less than optimal. +1 on Randy's comments and suggestions about the crop. The dark FG at the LLC is a major distraction - moving to your left (if possible) before taking the shot might have minimized it. The dark patch above the bird's tail is also distracting - you could probably lighten this, or remove it entirely by a bit of cloning. The BG also needs some NR, which would also make it less of a distraction.

John

[Tom Rambaut]

You know the place very well Mark - yes Long Reef. I hear there are wandering tatler there. I will try to get out one morning this week.

I went out there the other evening and before i had done anything other than walking from the car park I came across a injured Noisy Pitta - a casual visitor to sydney. I ended taking it to the vet and that took up most of my perfect light time. Got back to take a few shots of these guys in the sunset.

I have noticed that the 7d is noisy in the darks.

Thanks for the comments - all noted - this was a far from optimal image.

Oh the Pitta didn't make it - badly broken leg.

[Mark Young]

You know the place very well Mark - yes Long Reef. I hear there are wandering tatler there. I will try to get out one morning this week.

I went out there the other evening and before i had done anything other than walking from the car park I came across a injured Noisy Pitta - a casual visitor to sydney. I ended taking it to the vet and that took up most of my perfect light time. Got back to take a few shots of these guys in the sunset.

I have noticed that the 7d is noisy in the darks.

Thanks for the comments - all noted - this was a far from optimal image.

Oh the Pitta didn't make it - badly broken leg.

The Wandering Tattler has been there for nearly 2 months now. It was me who found and reported it about 3 weeks ago after first seeing it in January.
I was there on Sat am and it's still around. It's not easy to find so if you intend to go looking for it let me know and I'll give you some pointers on how to find it and how to differentiate it from the Grey-tailed Tattlers on the reef.
A Noisy Pitta is a great sighting for this part of Sydney, injured or not! Nice one.

[James Salywoda]

I love the hunting pose captured Tom and the low angle and the lines and textures in the bg really work great.

[Tom Rambaut]

Said Pitta is now at the Australian Museam.

Mark I will send a PM.