Great Blue Heron

Gallery: AvianPosted October 30, 201413,163 views16 comments

This spring I took a late afternoon walk to my nearby wildlife refuge. I have many photos of great blue herons and was hesitant to spend time with this bird hunting along side the trail. But, after failing to find another co-operative subject to work, I decided to try some close-ups of this fellow primarily using backlight and side lighting.

Canon MKIV; 600mm & 1.4x; 1/1000; f8; ISO 800

All your comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by John Neukirch on October 30, 2014 at 7:04 PM

Wow he seemed awfully interested in you didn't he? Was this HH and much crop?

Registered on July 9, 2012, 207 Posts, 1476 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on October 30, 2014 at 8:36 PM

An odd crop. I can understand wanting to keep the wonderful background, but the bird needs some headroom.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Tjie Poo on October 30, 2014 at 11:34 PM

I love this Ken ! An exquisite work of art !!

Registered on December 4, 2012, 51 Posts, 511 Comments

Comment posted by Balan Vinod on October 31, 2014 at 1:20 AM

Ken ..thats a beautiful comp ..and color ..some thing very new ...well done on this one

Balan Vinod

Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on October 31, 2014 at 2:34 AM

Hard to ignore this one on the page of thumbnails, Ken...the colours just grab your eyes and insist on a closer look. Count me firmly in the "love it" camp on this image. Absolutely stunning work of photographic art, and a very different image of a very photographed species. In fact, I cannot ever recall seeing anything quite like this of a GBH, and surely that is significant. The fact its eyes match the background is just icing on the cake, but it's kind of like the icing on a red velvet cake...it makes the experience special. Stunner.

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Sandor on October 31, 2014 at 10:16 AM

There's unique bad and unique good. This is definitely the latter. Even the thumbnail is an eye catcher. Richard

Registered on January 12, 2014, 453 Posts, 1625 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on October 31, 2014 at 11:14 AM

Hey Ken,
Now you have done it !
You have set the bar for GBH images to a new level. This composition has that special 'WHOW FACTOR' that we are all searching for in our images and your choices in capturing and processing this work of art are masterful.
Very

Man !

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

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on October 31, 2014 at 4:46 PM

Wow– a punchy, artful-realistic closeup capture of the heron, Ken. The composition is refreshing to me– bold and unusual. I am enjoying it. Wish the tip of that dagger beak was a little sharper, but being riveted to the look in its EYES, and the lovely blue-against-yellow wash, it's only a bit of a nit.

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on October 31, 2014 at 4:47 PM

Hello Everyone,

"Thank You" for your encouraging comments about this photo, I am happy you like it.

John N, I use a tripod 95% of the time, I was using my tripod for this image. This is also full frame, there's no room to crop. I purposely composed it this way with editorial thoughts of a double page spread in mind. I am considering adding canvas to the top of the image to create a vertical version with some breathing room.

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on October 31, 2014 at 9:35 PM

Ken, this has a very unique artistic feel to it and I like it. I know it's a bit tight and different, but for me, that;s what sets it apart. I do wish you had a touch more DOF for the beak...but the eyes make up for that and really pull my eye right to them. Oh...and love the BG!

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

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on November 1, 2014 at 1:25 AM

A very interesting, semi-abstract shot of a common bird. Always impressive to get a completely different view of a common bird.

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

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on November 1, 2014 at 4:18 AM

Ken,
This is a work of great beauty, I like the way you have broken composition "rules"

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

Comment posted by Ashleigh Scully on November 1, 2014 at 4:50 PM

whoa this is really cool. The eyes match the background and the blues are amazing. I think a vertical crop would also be good but its perfect as it is. I love this!

Registered on November 4, 2013, 36 Posts, 210 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on November 2, 2014 at 8:38 PM

Ken, this works for me. It's one of the more memorable images from your recent collection, I think. The horizontal crop is tight, but justified since you had an editorial crop in mind. I dig the abstract background.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on November 3, 2014 at 3:56 PM

This is one of those images that defies image critique. It's too tight on the top, the bill's not in sharp focus but it all works so well anyway. The background is spectacular and the fact that it matches the heron's eyes is a lot of the appeal and they are right at the rule of thirds point, so you didn't break all of the rules. Congrats on a very cool image Ken.

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

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on November 5, 2014 at 8:02 AM

Wonderful, love the light and the color!

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments