Great Blue Heron

David, the clearish look at the habitat behind the bird that is afforded by the closed down aperture is fine IMO. I like shots showing habitat. What suffers is the SS and in turn sharpness of the bird if you don't pan exactly at the same speed the bird is travelling. At 1/400s no part of the heron is sharp and thus the detail in the bird is rather poor. To me a sharp bird, at least the head, is more important than seeing the BG clearly, so I would stick with wider apertures and faster SS. In addition it appears this needs some CCW rotation to get things leveled out. Just my thoughts on the image and your question. Cheers.

That's probably going to be a matter of personal preference David. For me, I think I'd prefer the background to be more OOF in this case.

David, I know the feeling when a squaking big bird comes at you. You just fire.

Aside from needing a correction on the horizon this is a neat more or less head on shot of a GBH which is hard to get. I think you could have gone with f/9 or f/11 and saved yourself some SS that was lost which would have resulted in a sharper image - don't think much was gained by bumping all the way to f/13

- Luke

David, under the situation you outline I think you did well. The larger image gives a better view of the bird. I have done the same thing many times, when surprised by a critter, and just fire away without thinking of exposure changes. Lost many good shots that way. I agree with the comments about having the bird sharp before the BG. Thanks for sharing.

The increased DOF is not needed, though it is perfectly understandable that you may not have had a chance to change fast. You did the best you could. I kind of find the head at least sharp enough.

Thanks Wayne.

f/13 wasn't my intention, I usually like an OOF BG.