Yet another heron...

[Morkel Erasmus]

I'm having some fun with this rookery of Black-Headed Herons in the middle of our local duck pond. The species are starting to arrive for breeding season - last year we counted over 90 species on this island. The late afternoon light falls directly on this spot if there are no low clouds around.

Techs:
Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f7.1 @ 1/2000 SS @ ISO-1600

[Gary Esman]

Very nice, like the out stretched wings, open mouth, cool light, sharpness, details and dangling feet. Only thing that takes away from this shot is the dark areas in front of the bird. Awesome shot!

Gary.

[dankearl]

Wild looking pose and a great expression.
You do a nice job processing, I cannot make iso1600 work for me on a D7000.
Well done.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent dynamic pose and great details, very sharp and I love the BG too. looks like the D7000 is much better for flight and high ISO than your old 7D! I am glad you got the gear you deserve!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks guys...

Excellent dynamic pose and great details, very sharp and I love the BG too. looks like the D7000 is much better for flight and high ISO than your old 7D! I am glad you got the gear you deserve!

Arash, I prefer using my D3s for BIF, but am in a phase of "testing the D7000's limits" as my second body .

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks guys...



Arash, I prefer using my D3s for BIF, but am in a phase of "testing the D7000's limits" as my second body .

Even better!

[DanieBenade]

Great shot Morkel, like the pose and detail of the Heron.

[Randy Stout]

Morkel:

Excellent 3D effect, separation form bg, pose, details.

I agree with Gary about the dark areas, might try to soften them with a bit of cloning.

Bummer about the missing feather.


Cheers

Randy

[Mital Patel]

Morkel,

This is absolute mind blowing capture. light is just superb and so the sharp 3d capture.

yes i bothered a bit on bg patches light and dark both.

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent flight angle and super detail and colours

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks very much for your comments, folks...I tend to prefer not doing cloning unless I am preparing a 'fine art monochrome' type image and it would add to that feel. I'll dodge the darker parts and see how it looks...