Least Bittern w REPOST

Gallery: AvianPosted March 19, 2010173 views18 comments

D300, 500mm f/4, travel pillow on car window
ISO 1000, 1/1000 sec, f/8
Feb. 23, 2010 - Viera Wetlands, FL shortly after sunrise on a heavily overcast day. The minnows were making small swirls. I pre-focused on one and, in this case, made a correct guess about which one the bird would strike. These birds are amazing. The mean time between strikes can be long, but their success rate is very high - I would guess 90% catches while I was watching. I don't understand, biomechanically, how the bittern recovers from such an extended stretch. Which muscles could generate enough force to restore the body to its pre-strike position?
Cropped to 50% of full frame. I have versions with more saturated colors and with more brightness, but I think this version more accurately represents the colors and brightness that I saw. Noise Ninja used for sharpening and reduction of noise in the background. Other minor adjustments using CS3 and LightRoom 2.
Comments and suggestions welcome.

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on March 19, 2010 at 4:57 PM

Nice catch!
Great colors, pose, water, and a bit of reflection too.
Nice!

Sandy r

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Harbour on March 19, 2010 at 7:36 PM

Great timing. I love that wall of water. Pretty colors and I like the environment.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 113 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 19, 2010 at 7:42 PM

David, I really like this. The only nit, is one I have had to deal with a few times in the past, it seems like the NR has made the water look kind of plastic/unnatural. In the very few times I use NR I tend to set it to remove only about 50% of the noise, that way the BG, including water, remains looking a lot more natural. Just a suggestion. Cheers.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on March 19, 2010 at 8:06 PM

Agree with Ron's comments

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Marquart on March 19, 2010 at 8:30 PM

Nice 1/1000 sec, action capture. Like the splash, the detail in the neck feathers, and the habitat.

Registered on October 24, 2009, 126 Posts, 799 Comments

Comment posted by David Sparks on March 19, 2010 at 9:04 PM

Thanks for the comments. Ron raised the issue of whether or not the noise reduction made the BG look plastic and unnatural. This is a version with no noise reduction or sharpening. I'm not sure noise reduction is the culprit. Perhaps it is saturation/brightness adjustments I made to try to tone down the bright reflections on the water or that's just the way the water looked.

Registered on May 26, 2007, 290 Posts, 4270 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on March 19, 2010 at 9:14 PM

I actually like your first post better as i think it's sharper with more contrast. Love the action

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Strand on March 19, 2010 at 10:10 PM

Wonderful image David, love the strike action and water splash. Your colors look very good as well!

Registered on March 30, 2008, 416 Posts, 2885 Comments

Comment posted by Derrick Lipinski on March 19, 2010 at 10:16 PM

Great action/behavior shot David. Love the frozen action, nicely done.

Registered on October 5, 2007, 58 Posts, 2039 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 19, 2010 at 11:04 PM

wow, David, well done. good planning, and I love the splash and the detail on the neck. must be a strong grip on that reed and some strong leg muscles.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 19, 2010 at 11:48 PM

Great timing, David. The splash is very neat.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on March 20, 2010 at 1:35 AM

Great timing David - love the drops around the edge of the splash

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on March 20, 2010 at 7:42 AM

The action in this is very cool David! Lie the repost better. Even the reflection on the splash is outstanding

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on March 20, 2010 at 1:14 PM

Another comment about great timing here, David. I really like this action, the splash and the setting too.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on March 20, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Great timing in capturing this action. I love the splashing water. The color, comp, exp etc all look good. I also like the environment shown in the shot and all the redlections in the water. I can't tell much difference in the two versions on my screen. They both look nice. Well done.

Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments

Comment posted by Roger Leekam on March 20, 2010 at 4:41 PM

Great action and color, but I always think that an animal's eye is the most important part of an image, if you can get it. There's an orange arc behind the tail and it is a bit distracting. Could be easily cloned out if it's a flare or other artifact. Effective shot!

Registered on May 28, 2009, 83 Posts, 646 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 21, 2010 at 3:39 PM

David, to me there is a world of difference in the look of the water in the two image. The one without noise reduction looks very natural. Personally, I would go with the second image and just sharpen up the bird using your normal sharpening routine and leave the noise in the water and BG as is. Just my opinion.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on March 21, 2010 at 5:04 PM

David,

I do like the splash but I think the previous images of this bird that you have posted are stronger than this one. They have more detail & less noise thus they are more visually appealing to me.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments