White Morph Reddish Egre

Gallery: AvianPosted December 12, 2009120 views16 comments

Photo taken Sept. 3, 2009 at the National Seashore reserve on Pensacola Beach. Cropped to 64% of full frame. Sharpening and exposure adjustments using LR2 and CS3. BG noise reduction using Noise Ninja. I must cross 200-300 yards of mostly open beach to reach the tide pool where this bird often fishes and, unfortunately, have been unable to get closer to the egret.

D300, 500mm f/4 + 1.7x tc, tripod
ISO 800, 1/2000 sec, f/8

Comments and suggestions most welcome.

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Marella on December 12, 2009 at 9:02 PM

Dave, this is really nice. A lot of action in the pose and the anticipation of a strike creates a lot of interest. Technicals look great. No nits from me.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 142 Posts, 862 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on December 12, 2009 at 9:21 PM

Beautiful pose and capture. I think it needs a little cw rotation to straighten up the waterline, though. Nice job on the exposure. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on December 12, 2009 at 9:31 PM

David, awesome bird. I like the bird and comp a lot. It does need CW rotation IMO, but once that is taken care of this will be very nice indeed. Nice BG to set off the white bird.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on December 12, 2009 at 9:34 PM

A wonderful image Dave - great tension here. I like the dark, roiling water and the leg and wing positions. 64% of full frame sounds to me like you were pretty close.

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

Comment posted by Carrie O'Brien-Sib on December 12, 2009 at 9:50 PM

OUTSTANDING!!

Registered on August 4, 2009, 149 Posts, 889 Comments

Comment posted by David Sparks on December 12, 2009 at 10:28 PM

Thanks for your comments. This is a rotated version.

Registered on May 26, 2007, 290 Posts, 4270 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on December 12, 2009 at 11:53 PM

David,

I love the dramatic pose, the setting and your great exposure control. The repost looks perfect as far as the rotation goes. I love the dimpled look the water has and that I can just barely make out the bird's shadow in it.

Very well captured and appealing image.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on December 13, 2009 at 2:23 AM

Beautifully demonstrates their hunting behavior. Good job on the white bird.

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

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on December 13, 2009 at 7:11 AM

Beautiful bird. Don't know that I've seen one. The techs are great and the pose really shows off the bird's aggressive hunting technique.

Registered on April 10, 2009, 292 Posts, 3967 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on December 13, 2009 at 8:02 AM

really nice, David. your exposure looks spot on, and the rotated repost looks good. What I really like about this though is how perfectly you captured the semi-crazed-looking hunting behavior that makes this species so much fun to watch.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on December 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM

Great energy in the pose and the capture David. Also excellent whites mgt. No nits of any kind from me. I like the image a lot.

Pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on December 13, 2009 at 2:02 PM

Great pose and I like the concentration of the bird. Agreed on the cw rotation. Nice effort to get out to where this bird is, it certainly paid off.

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

Comment posted by Monica Siri on December 13, 2009 at 2:20 PM

Hi David,
I like the interesting pose and the look of the heron. Great work!

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Ákos Lumnitzer on December 13, 2009 at 3:37 PM

Repost is sure better David.

Love the pose and setting. i would run NR on the BG. I can see a fair bit of noise in the 1200-pixel image.
Congrats!

Registered on April 24, 2004, 25 Posts, 510 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on December 13, 2009 at 10:21 PM

Great action David and I like the wind whipping across the water.

cheers
Rob

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

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on December 14, 2009 at 5:16 PM

Dave, you got a fine pose here. I'm glad to know that y'all have the Reddish Egrets in that area. Might have to get over that way sometime.

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