Extreme Close ups - Great Egret

[Mack Hicks]

I have been working a small pond in South Texas and have seen this great egret a couple of times before. Usually, it hears one click and takes off again. Friday, I thought it was going to stick its head in the blind. The blind was positioned for the morning sun, so this is a little cross lit as I was shooting out of the side port.
D700 500 f/4 with Kenko 1.4 TC. Minimal focal distance, had to hand focus. f/6.3 1/1600 ISO 640 -1/3 EV. PP in LR3, cropped to 10.24 X 8 otherwise full frame. Crown was a little hot, sharpened, small amount of noise reduction.

[Stu Bowie]

Tack sharp Mack, and I like the concentrated stare. Stands out nicely against the smooth BG.

[bhavya joshi]

super sharp, great close up with beautiful eye..and BG.. really Mack.. great captured..

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good close-up, fun when an individual finally cooperates. Sun angle a bit off as you mention and this caused some unevenness on he face illumination. I would also have preferred more of a head turn our way, and as posted I would place the eye higher in the frame by cropping some off the top. Very sharp as posted, and I like the nice green BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to sharp with a nice BKGR. You should try some different crops. The off angled light does not work for this puppy who believes that we should point our shadow either at the birds (usually) or at the sun (rarely, for the strongest back light).