GBH in Flight

[Don Leslie]

I took this shot along the shore of Lake Ontario, he seemed quite used to people as he let me get real close, and then put on a little show for me, flying back and froth in front of me a few times, before heading off. Shot at 400 mm, hand held. I adjusted the shadows,and saturation, applied some USM and neat image, and cloned out a small portion of a hydro tower.

7D +100-400 mm lens
1/1600 sec
f 5.6
ISO 400

[Randy Stout]

Don:

Nice when they are cooperative!

I like the stretched out pose with dangling legs, unusual kink in neck, birds angle in frame.

Fill flash would have been helpful here to open up the shadows a bit more.

I wish there was a bit more separation between the bird and grasses, but I do like their inclusion vs. straight blue sky background.

Very good DOF considering the size of the bird and your f/stop.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Don, as Randy mentioned, an unusual kink in the herons neck, and I like how he is just missing the top of the reeds. In a perfect world, a better wing position would have been first prize. Im not sure if you could open up the heron a little more to show more detail, especially under the near wing.

[Raymond Lee]

Great shot! Love the flight angle! Of course, ideally, I would prefer the wings to be fully up (I don't think wings down will not look good in this case). Ideally, I also prefer the grass in front of the bird to be a bit further away. It is what it is though.

Raymond