Great Egret Flying

Gallery: AvianPosted October 1, 201177 views8 comments

I am fortunate to be currently living next to a river in Seoul, Korea, that has a number of Great Egrets in an area that's on my way to my day job. With the early morning autumn sun and clear skies, I have been able to spend some time working on my nature photographing skills before clocking in. Here is just one of many that I hope everyone will enjoy, and some will help me make better. My current gear:

Canon 60D
EF 70-200mm f4 L USM lens
Kenko DGX 1.4X Teleplus Pro TC
ISO 400 @ f8 @ 1/1250 sec
Cropped significantly to get up close, but I don't know exactly how much

Comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Craig Strand on October 1, 2011 at 8:54 AM

Very nice comp. with this image Mark. I like the DOF detail on the egret and the OOF BG. Very well done!

Registered on March 30, 2008, 416 Posts, 2885 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on October 1, 2011 at 9:15 AM

Mark, I like the wing position and sharpness looks good. Comp works well also. The bright spot on the top of the foot catches my eye and I'm noticing noise in the background.

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

Comment posted by Bill Kleinfelder on October 1, 2011 at 1:26 PM

Great detail, nice contrasts between bird and background. Notice a little grain in background, but overall nice in-flight shot!

Registered on September 6, 2011, 14 Posts, 71 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on October 1, 2011 at 3:28 PM

Mark, I like the comp. I see the noise in the BG due to the largish crop you mention. Maybe some NR on the BG would help. The bird looks a bit bright along its left side toward the back. I think you could bring down the overall exposure and it would help and then bring down the brightest areas of the bird a bit more to get some additional detail back in that area.

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

Comment posted by Jaymes Dempsey on October 1, 2011 at 3:42 PM

Really nice catch! Love the light, too...
The back wing seems a slightly overexposed, maybe that could be brought down a little...
Otherwise, great!

Registered on June 28, 2010, 47 Posts, 590 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on October 1, 2011 at 11:48 PM

Welcome to NPN Mark. A white Egret in flight and in bright light is a really difficult shot to get. I like wing span and river background. Some of the nits are already mentioned by others but it looks like you have a great location to practice, way to go.

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on October 2, 2011 at 11:56 AM

Sweet light and bg, Mark, and I like the wing position. I agree that the far wing looks a bit bright as does the bright spot on the foot that was mentioned.

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

Comment posted by Mark Deibert on October 2, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Thanks everyone for your critiques. I often find myself struggling with noise reduction and sharpening...just one of those I guess I just have to keep pushing on. As for the bright spot on the top of the foot...that actually is a white spot on its foot, that you can't tell here because of the photo size. Again, thanks so much for your comments.

Registered on September 30, 2011, 48 Posts, 125 Comments