Great White Egret

Gallery: AvianPosted October 8, 2013136 views10 comments

This bird was jumping between to branches, I left one in the crop to hopefully explain the pose.
Taken on the floodplain of the Chobe River, Chobe National Park, Botswana.
EOS 1DX
200 -400 mm F4 1,4x at 560mm
F6.3
ISO 800
1/6400
EV -0.33

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on October 8, 2013 at 10:12 AM

Great and weird action shot - it's good that you explained the pose LOL... Nicely frozen in mid air ! Congrats, Hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on October 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM

Ken,
For me, Egrets are the hardest subjects to properly capture without blowing out the whites and/or losing feather detail.
This is 'Text Book' perfect in both respects along with a very interesting pose.
Well Done . . .

Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on October 8, 2013 at 12:04 PM

Ken: I do like the pose of the egret. I'm not wild about the branch left on the left side even though you explained why you left it there.

For me a bigger issue is the color cast to the image. I looked at the larger version and there is a green blue color cast to the egret. I did a color correction against the larger version if you are interested.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on October 8, 2013 at 12:47 PM

Excellent, Ken. I'm amazed that you got this kind of detail in the whites at only -0.33EV. What metering mode was used? I think you even have some room to bump up the brightness a bit. The posture of the legs is a real bonus, and so I now see why you left the branch in.

Registered on July 21, 2004, 706 Posts, 3233 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on October 8, 2013 at 3:21 PM

Love the pose! Great job on the whites! Egrets are my hardest subject to photograph. They always seem to have a blown highlight on the top. And very nice feather detail.

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on October 8, 2013 at 7:22 PM

Ken, It's a really neat pose and the bird is sharp but I agree with Keith. I'm not fond of the branch at left and there does seem to be a color cast on the egret.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on October 8, 2013 at 10:43 PM

Can't add much to the discussion, but do agree with what has been put out there so far. I think you could go a bit brighter Ken. Neat pose.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on October 9, 2013 at 1:13 AM

Thanks everybody for your comments, looking again I agree that there is a slight cast, which I will fix

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on October 9, 2013 at 9:17 AM

Nits noted, but overall I think the shot is quite good. The composition is understandable.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on October 11, 2013 at 3:11 AM

What a great pose Ken and razor sharp where it counts

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