Great Egret in breeding colours.

[Daniel Cadieux]

From Lakeland, Florida (Lake Morton). I couldn't believe it when I saw this Great Egret and a Great-blue Heron (both in high breeding colours) following a lady feeding them bread(!). I never knew these fish-loving, very wary in parts birds could do such a thing! The lady also remarked that she normally had a Wood Stork or two follow her on her feeding rounds!! A few Ibises were also begging and being in the way, but I'd expect that from them. What she didn't know was that I had half a bagel in my coat pocket and planned to use that to keep the egret close to me and coax it into a more pleasing BG. Actually, she did know and didn't mind...

Canon 30D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/9, ISO 400, no EC, handheld, full-frame.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Love the colors, nice job stopping down with no EV.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Perfect exposure, exquisite details, gorgeous breeding plumage and perfect crop. Love it.
Wish the birds in Austin were 1/10th as friendly.

[Doug Brown]

Excellent sharpness and great breeding colors. I might move the bird down slightly in the frame, and I think you could go a little brighter on your whites. You do great stuff with your 100-400!

[Chris Korman]

Nice simple color palette. The composition is very good as well. If there was one thing, and it very minor is the orientation of the eye would be preferred to be looking directly at the lens.

[John Guastella]

Awesome detail and colors. I love these close-up shots - they make me really appreciate the beauty of these creatures. Agree that that you can go lighter on the whites - perhaps the entire image can go brighter.

John

[Arthur Morris]

Techs and colors right on but I am with Doug. For me, this one needs to be down a bit in the frame. Do you have any more room above?

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Were you there with James or on your own?

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image
TFS

[Bob Pelkey]

I support consideration of overall brightening of the image (on a white background at least).

[Ofer Levy]

Techs are excellent but I am not crazy about the crop - especially cutting the beak in such a way - the same way I won't even consider presenting a head shot of a human with the nose cut off...

[Chris Martinez]

I liked hearing the background notes of how you came to photograph this stunning specimen. I don't think I would have thought of it myself but after reading Doug and Arthur's suggestion on composition I entertaining the idea.

The eye itself looks awesome and the details and IQ of the whole image are superb.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey guys, thanks a stack for the comments/suggestions. I don't have more room above on this particular image (FF), but since this guy was static for a long time I had lots of time to experiment and have a number of different in-camera comps to choose from.

ps: Were you there with James or on your own?

Artie, this was with Roman and Randy on the morning after the spoonies. Awesome place that I will revisit if I ever go down to the Tampa area!! James was not there but he did suggest the place.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Dan. I will have to get over there in my spare time. Wait. I have no spare time.... artie in London for the night

[Dumay de Boulle]

Beautiful detail and the green in the breeding colors are quite extraordinary ....Lovely stuff Daniel

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Stunning detail and colors. Love such closeups. Agree that a bit lighter and more space on top would make this even better. JR

[James Salywoda]

I like the detail Daniel and breeding colors but I'm not a fan of any photo with a clipped beak. I don't think you would of had any less emphasis on the breeding colors with a full head shot especially at 1024 on the longest side.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks again everyone. FWIW I have no objection to solidly cutting (rather than clipping) the beak of a long billed bird for extreme close-ups - but I'll concede it would look awful doing this on a raptor, sparrow, or warbler

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Dan, I have not problem with your cutting the beak in half here; that is why I did not mention it in my original comment. Heck, I did not even notice it :)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks Artie. I knew you were OK with this as I've seen cut bills in your photos before. A couple of other posters are not so keen on doing so though...but I'm OK with that too...a matter of taste really.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Daniel, am fine with the crop. Great details. Must be fun shooting so many birds at close range...only in Florida, I guess.