Great Egret Portrait

Gallery: AvianPosted March 19, 2011150 views21 comments

I've just returned home from a week in Florida, with lots of morning photography time, and all I can say is "WOW!!!" The bird photography in Florida is absolutely awesome. As are the birds of Florida. I have only begun to scratch the surface in terms of looking at and evaluating my photos, but here's one of my early favorites.

I enjoyed a really magical morning at the small lagoon behind the Holiday Inn at Ft Myers Beach (it's in the ABA Florida birding guide) with great light and lots of egrets, herons, and two exceptionally cooperative and spectacularly beautiful spoonbills. In fact, my biggest problem that morning was that I had too much focal length for a lot of shots, but was able to capitalize for portraits like this.

Your comments and critiques are appreciated. Please view the larger version if possible.

Canon 7D, 500mm + 1.4x TC, monopod

f/7.1, 1/500, ISO 640

Full frame, no crop

Comments

21 comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 19, 2011 at 10:20 PM

A very cool portrait and the golden light sets if off nicely Brian, gotta love those friendly, cooperative Florida birds!

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 19, 2011 at 10:28 PM

Beautiful, Brian. I like the way it's concentrating on something instead of looking at the camera in this case. The detail is awesome. Whats that wild yellow bg?

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

Comment posted by Bill Fach on March 19, 2011 at 11:31 PM

Brian: I'm not a bird guy but this really caught my eye. Marvelous capture. >=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on March 19, 2011 at 11:31 PM

Excellent image. I love this unusual color and the tight framing that gives such strong graphic liners to the composition.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on March 19, 2011 at 11:41 PM

The gradation in the background works very well with the beak - both color wise and geometrically. Phenomenal details in the larger version. I particularly like the wet beak and the searching expression. Exposure techs and sharpness are also very good.

Thanks for sharing this. Looking fwd to your other images.

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

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on March 20, 2011 at 12:18 AM

Wonderful color palette, Brian. Nice detail, too. I like that the bird is hunting and not obviously worried about you.

And you do have to love those cooperative Florida birds, don't you?

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

Comment posted by Gary Marquart on March 20, 2011 at 12:50 AM

Very nice portrait Brian.

Registered on October 24, 2009, 126 Posts, 799 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on March 20, 2011 at 2:10 AM

Excellent - composition, detail, exposure control, background colours - all first class.

Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on March 20, 2011 at 7:31 AM

Oh for such co-operative birds - great effort Brian. fantastic detail and I like your comp. What is that magical background?

cheers
Rob

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

Comment posted by Bill Maile on March 20, 2011 at 8:37 AM

Wow, that's some kind of detail indeed! Beautiful portrait Brian.

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on March 20, 2011 at 11:20 AM

Very nice. Excellent details in the white feathers. What a problem to have, the birds are too close!?!? As others have commented the background really compliments the bird with the big yellow bill.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 20, 2011 at 12:18 PM

thanks for the comments, all. the bg here is water with golden light on it, but I'm not sure exactly what was creating that effect. this was very early in the morning, not long after sunrise.

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

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on March 20, 2011 at 2:21 PM

Excellent detail, Brian ! Florida's such a fun place for bird photography.

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

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 20, 2011 at 2:31 PM

Love the BG here Brian. It really works well with this bird and alone is magical. Very nice exposure overall and the detail in the bird is super. Really nice!

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

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on March 20, 2011 at 5:16 PM

Exquisite. The bg is killer, really sets off this detailed portrait.
Its a wonder we didn't run into each other on the Tamiami Trail. Was shooting there all week.

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

Comment posted by Dan Walters on March 20, 2011 at 6:25 PM

Love the tight crop and the yellow background.

Registered on October 30, 2005, 405 Posts, 3693 Comments

Comment posted by Andrius Pašukonis on March 20, 2011 at 7:58 PM

Amazing portrait! Perfect colors!

Registered on July 23, 2005, 111 Posts, 408 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on March 20, 2011 at 8:31 PM

Excellent portrait. Love the details and the colors, also the way the bird is concentrating on , I presume, looking for food.
May

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

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 21, 2011 at 5:01 PM

Wow Brian, very cool, yellows are always a hard color to get right (at least for me). Excellent portrait with good detail through out the image, very impressive, the large image was a pleasure to view.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Todd Caudle on March 21, 2011 at 6:29 PM

Let me make this simple: This is, hands down, one of the most incredible avian photos I've ever seen! Cannot WAIT to see much more, Brian.

Registered on November 9, 2003, 472 Posts, 3705 Comments

Comment posted by Christopher Dodds on March 22, 2011 at 6:57 AM

Sweet portrait with killer background - well done!

Registered on October 14, 2010, 9 Posts, 46 Comments