Cocoi heron

Looks like you had some pretty harsh lighting to deal with. I think I would look at bringing the luminance of the background down (especially the white wave at the top of the frame). I'd also look at a crop from the bottom up to the brown to eliminate the blueish strip in the foreground. I took a look and believe that helps eliminate a distraction.

Hi Keith, thanks for your comments.
I really had harsh lighting. Unfortunately, we were driving on the shore after 1 pm.
I'll try to work a bit on the image, following your suggestions.

Jefferson, do you have Viveza? I think the ability to place control points and have the software build the mask for you would be a benefit in pulling the BG down while preserving the tones in the heron. If you don't have Viveza, you might want to check out the "Google Collection" as Nik's old suite of programs is now called. Viveza is one of the programs and it is an integral part of what many of us do when making targeted tonal adjustments.

While I'm a fan of the "Google Collection", I believe the best answer to these types of issues is learning how to apply layers and the creation of effective, accurate layer masks. Once that skill is mastered, there is no end to the possibilities to do accurate selective adjustment to any part of an image. I'm well aware of the use of Nik's control points. They work reasonably well, but are nowhere near as accurate, or flexible as creating your own layer masks.

Nice flight position and the waves are interesting, but they do seem to be a bit too distracting. I think a wider aperture might have helped.

I love coming across an image like this when there is commentary on how to better the image. I am NOT an expert AT ALL on post processing so to hear Keith talk about layers gets me thinking. I have never applied a layer to an image and would love to learn how. So much to learn.
Light does look harsh but as you say you were just driving along and came upon an opportunity and took advantage of it. I know Patrick gets some schooling from Keith...Maybe you and I could as well.