A different pose from my previous post; this egret is captive bird in the 1904 Aviary at the St. Louis Zoo. RAW image processed in LR; 400mm, f/5.6@1/4000. I extended the canvas a bit on the top and on the LHS; brought up the saturation on the lores a bit. Cloned out some distracting dark lines in the BG. Used Fractalius on a separate layer...changed the blend mode on that layer to Multiply...then lowered the opacity on the layer to allow a bit of additional detail show through. I need to credit Andrew McLachlan for inspiration here...his application of Fractalius on various images pushed me toward trying a similar style on this image...thanks to Denise as well for a previous tip on trying out various blend modes. Good stuff on both accounts.
This particular egret has a soft spot in my heart. She was brought to the St. Louis Zoo having lost an eye to an idiot with a pellet gun; she is very skittish, even after two years in the aviary, because she has such a limited field of vision. If you are patient, quiet and still...anticipating her movement and just waiting for her to come to you...she's an extraordinarily beautiful bird...I might just feel that way because of what she's endured, but she does strike me as having a gentle personality. Touches me every time.









