Goliath Heron

[Morkel Erasmus]

I went out to a local hide over the weekend and got some nice images of this guy flying down from one of the other hides on the wetland. One of my favourite herons.

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II + 1.4xTC @ 700mm
f8.0 @ 1/1600 SS @ ISO-2800 (auto ISO)
EV +0.7
about a 50% crop
ran Nik Color Efex tonal contrast very lightly on the bird only

[dankearl]

Nice flight pose and light Morkel.
You do very well as usual with high ISO.

[Ofer Levy]

Nice pose and shooting angle.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love the pose and that great front wing. Reminds me of an airplane wing with the flaps up :)

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Morkel, really like this - great flight pose and feather detail. For me, you could add some more space all around, but especially left and below. Thanks for sharing, Gerald

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great action shot with fine detail, I like the composition but I too would not mind seeing a little more space around the subject.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for the comments, folks.
At the bottom was distracting OOF grass, hence the 'tight' crop (I also like more space around my subject in general)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mork, you have nailed the flight posture in this - great forward wing position. I like the angled head and neck, and you have brought out the feather detail very well.

Marievale?

[arash_hazeghi]

great flight pose and nice details Morkel