Morning Heron

Gallery: AvianPosted June 21, 2016138 views11 comments

My second morning at Big Beef Creek last week started out with considerable cloudiness and then a bit of sun peeking through. I really liked the angle of the sun on the Great Blue Heron and how it glowed against the shadowed bg. I'm uncertain about the slightly more lighted wedge on the far left of the background, so I'm adding a repost (click on the image for a 1200 pixel version) with it cloned out to see which people prefer.

7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600mm, handheld, f/8, 1/1600, iso 640, manual exposure. Processed in LR5 & CS6 and cropped to 14 MP before resizing. Taken June 15 at 6:26 AM.

Your comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on June 21, 2016 at 11:07 PM

Here's the other version.

Thanks,

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on June 22, 2016 at 10:58 AM

Dennis, I like version 2 best. It looks to me like really odd lighting on the heron. Very dramatic! Also think the sharpness is very good for a HH shot. I can't even begin to hand hold mine, not the fault of the lens, just me. Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more from your Big Beef Creek venture.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on June 22, 2016 at 11:51 AM

Really nice shot of a GBH in flight. Amazing detail, actually, given hand held at 600 mm. Nice lighting on the head and the red front of the wings. I would vote for the first one. The clouds on the left seem to give the shot more depth and somewhat frames the heron. Also, and I'm not quite sure how to put this in words, but the clouds seem to give a certain context to the shot. The heron seems to be flying out of the clouds and in the second shot the heron could have been cut and pasted on a pleasing background.

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

Comment posted by Jake Alletson on June 22, 2016 at 11:52 AM

I like the repost version more. Just wish I could get my 150 - 600 to work like that.

Registered on May 3, 2016, 12 Posts, 163 Comments

Comment posted by Raoul Breaux Jr on June 22, 2016 at 12:00 PM

I have a feeling I'll be in a minority, but I prefer the first image. To me, it places the Heron in space; it gives the BG depth. The light area also provides a BG to better define the edge of that black upper wing.

Regardless, this is a dramatic, and beautiful capture. I really like this a lot. devil

Registered on April 27, 2016, 20 Posts, 142 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Williams on June 22, 2016 at 6:41 PM

Dennis, I really like the color of this one. The rich browns are very unusual for a GBH. Nice shot on the wing too.

Registered on December 28, 2010, 636 Posts, 3499 Comments

Comment posted by David Schoen on June 23, 2016 at 3:19 PM

I like version 2. I think the clouds are a little distracting. Nice light BTW.

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on June 23, 2016 at 6:52 PM

I like the first post; I'm always a sucker for habitat in shots like this, and I like the hillside(?) behind. If it were mine, I might try teasing out a little detail in the underwing.

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

Comment posted by Pramod.Shanbhag on June 24, 2016 at 1:26 PM

Nice action image Dennis.I would love to have some more details in the under wings

Registered on May 17, 2016, 29 Posts, 68 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on June 24, 2016 at 5:47 PM

An interesting image Dennis. I like the dark colours
May.

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on June 27, 2016 at 7:00 PM

Excellent capture of the heron in flight, Dennis. You got an outstanding wingspread and a sweet background. I prefer the second version without the lighter clouds in the background. They take my eye away from the heron. I would also like to see a brighter version of this image. The side lighting takes away some details especially from the underwing areas.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments