Grey Heron Landed

Gallery: AvianPosted October 3, 201165 views7 comments

I am fortunate to be currently living next to a river in Seoul, Korea, that has a number of Great Egrets and Grey Herons in an area that's on my way to my day job. With the early morning autumn sun and clear skies, I have been able to spend some time working on my nature photographing skills before clocking in. Here is just one of many that I hope everyone will enjoy, and some will help me make better. This shots exif:

Canon 60D
EF 70-200mm f4 L USM lens
Kenko DGX 1.4X Teleplus Pro TC
ISO 400 @ f8 @ 1/1250 sec
Cropped significantly to get up close, but I don't know exactly how much

BTW, what appears to be noise in the river in the BG is actually reflection and crap in the water...for the most part...

Comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I've been fretting about getting a 400mm lens. Does anyone know if the Sigma 120-400mm is worth the thousand bucks, or should I hold out?

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Gary Marquart on October 3, 2011 at 12:39 PM

Nice timing catching this wings-spread pose Mark, this looks quite nice to me especially for a significant crop. The lighting and exposure looks good to me even with it being back lit, as does the sharpness and detail. I also like the way the bird stands out against the water BG. The small white blob on the left side of the photo catches my eye somewhat and would suggest cloning it out.

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

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on October 3, 2011 at 1:01 PM

Nice pose with the wingspread. I like the background, though would agree with cloning the white object to the left of the heron.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Etienne Artigau on October 3, 2011 at 4:29 PM

Hi Mark,

your bird is a Grey Heron (Adrea cinerea), not a Great Blue Heron. Grey Herons are the Old World (most of Europe, Asia and Africa) counterpart of the Grean Blue Heron (North and Central America). There are a few plumage differences, the Grey Heron has a grey belly and whitish tighs while the Great Blue Heron has more reddish underparts.

Cheers,

Étienne

Registered on January 17, 2006, 55 Posts, 104 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on October 3, 2011 at 9:02 PM

A belated welcome to NPN Mark, great pose you captured here and I like your comp. Some of the brightness in the bg is a little distracting. Would it have been possible to get a lower angle to get a different background?

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on October 3, 2011 at 10:11 PM

Mark,
I should have added that I haven't used that Simga lens but I have used the 150-500 and 50-500 some and they are pretty good lenses and probably similar to the 120-400 but not as sharp as the Canon 400mm F5.6 which also costs about $1K. Of course the downside is you lose the flexibility of a zoom and it's not image stabilized.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Deibert on October 3, 2011 at 11:49 PM

Thanks for all the comments and great advice...and thanks, Étienne, for straightening me out about which variation of heron this is. I'm not a bird expert...but I'm learning.

Registered on September 30, 2011, 48 Posts, 125 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on October 5, 2011 at 2:55 AM

No point me repeating suggestions already made, so I'll just say that I like the wingspread and the subject Mark!

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments