Hanging on the beach for the holidays.

[JimRollyson]

First post on the forum. Caught this blue heron hanging out on the beach all alone on a dingy gray day in Dauphin Island, AL to try put my new 500mm f4 Christmas present.

Shot on a 7D at iso 200 f4 1/320 on a monopod.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jim, a big welcome to BPN, and its always good to get stuck right in and participate. Super pose and HA, and I feel crouching down a little would have have given you the perfect perspective. The light looks like it was overcast, so a little more TLC in pp should bring out more detail. As is, I like how the heron pops against the lighter beach BG.

With regards to your techs, using a minimum ISO of 400 should give you good ss in good light.

Santa was kind to you. Congrats.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Welcome to BPN! This is a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer.

Nice Santa, he must have been out of big glass by the time he got to my house

Good points from Stuart. Generally a lower shooting angle is more intimate and engaging in bird images. In this particular case, I think your shooting angle worked well with the wave pattern to balance the image well, keeping the wave separate from the bird, allowing it to act as a counter balance to the mass of the bird.

As Stuart pointed out, the overcast lighting did cause the bird to be a bit dull. I often use a touch of fill flash under these shooting conditions to give the bird some pop.

I did do a tweak with slightly raised curve in the darker tones, some localized contrast work on the bird to give it some more snap.

Look forward to more.

Be sure to comment on other folks images. Your images will present better if posted at the allowed limits of 1024 h by 800 vertically, and up to 256k.

Cheers

Randy

[JimRollyson]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I can tell from reading a few threads in here that I will learn a lot as opposed to most friends and family "wow, nice shot" comments...

As for the lower shooting angle, I can certainly see the point in that. In this particular case (other than being the first time out with the beast of a lens), the heron was on the beach near the water and I approached from higher up in elevation cautiously so as not to scare it off. Shot on a monopod that was fully collapsed. So perhaps laying flat was the only way to get lower.

Also, Randy you mentioned fill flash. I certainly have the ability to do that (have a 580EX II), but frankly was worried that the flash would scare off the bird. Do you guys find that wildlife generally ignore the flash or does this increase the need to get the pose right the first time?

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the HA, the pose given by the bird, the sharpness and detail. I felt the bird is a bit underexpose and Randy repost help with that. I do like the wave on the top left of the frame, it helps frame the bird and give more hint of the environment. Being lower would give the viewer more connect to the bird due to perspective, but I'm not sure you will loose the wave or not. If you can incorporate both that would be great.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice pose and what a super clean beach that is!! I like that one foot caused the wet sand to break around it. The repost is a nice improvement, but one thing I find for both is that the subject is a bit big in the frame, I'd love to see more room all around if you have it. I love low angles so when the background is not distracting you can usually find me on my belly for these types of images, it makes a difference!

As for flash, I like to use it sometimes in overcast conditions too and I have rarely had problems in regards to disturbing birds with it...when I do it's usually the smaller ones such as chickadees and kinglets that jump and flutter a bit nervously.