Erin Browne
About the Image(s)
Weather was a balmy 60 degrees instead of 35 so we went to one of our favorite Nature Reserves today and watched this heron for a bit as he stood and then took flight. As I wasn't expecting him to take flight, I didn't have time to adjust my angle or my aperture (1/1000 f/5.6 iso800 at 222m on a 60-600). This one seemed pretty evenly in focus considering. When cropping I left the water droplets in the bottom corner to show where he took flight from, and added a slight vignette to try and bring the focus in. Did a few other minor edits including Denoise and adding a little luminance to the yellows and oranges to bring out his beak a little more against the blue waters.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
Beautifully captured image, the heron is well separated from the background with well defined detail in the face and the back of the bird. A very slight blurring on the furthest wingtips to be expected with the droplets of water giving the full story of the bird taking flight. I particular like the difference in tonal range from the blues featured in the water to the blue grey, featured in the back of the bird. Well captured and handled shot   Posted: 01/10/2025 19:58:45
What a great capture and your post-processing works well. Your vignette works, and it would be interesting to see if you could light the eye just a slight bit.
Best regards,
Greg   Posted: 01/20/2025 14:03:50
How did you get him to pose like that? I love the diagonal line created by his wings - which are very sharp almost all the way to the tip.
The water droplets add a nice touch to the story also. You might try to remove that one vertical branch in the lower left corner.
I envy you being able to catch birds in flight! Nice job!
Karen   Posted: 01/23/2025 15:24:45
Greetings my friend.
Apology for delayed input.
What an amazing capture you have shared with us, The tight crop the diagonal setting of the subject on the frame, the sharpness and the details of the subject made this a stunner. Thank you for sharing and I have no suggestions for this amazing presentation.
Cheers.
Kamal.   Posted: 01/31/2025 01:23:07