Little Blue Heron

Gallery: AvianPosted May 1, 201673 views8 comments

Little Blue Heron Juvenile

Hello all! I'm new to NPN and looking forward to meeting and learning from the many talented photographers here. Photography has been a hobby of mine since age 15, but a technical career kept me distracted over the many...many years. Now that I am finally retired, I hope to focus more on my creative interests. I live and shoot in South Louisiana, where we are blessed with an abundance of beautiful locations and wildlife.

Regards,
Raoul Breaux
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Nikon D7200 on an Induro tripod.
Tamrom 150-600mm @ 400mm
1/1000s @ f/7.1
ISO 400
15% of frame
Edited in LR5.1

This LBH juvenile was picking around some neck-high grass and would periodically poke its head up for a look around. I love the simplicity of the scene with the soft foreground and the white head and neck contrasted against the dark background. The crop is a lot larger than I would normally do, but there were some distracting background features left and right that I couldn't deal with, so I took the middle. Taken in April of 2015.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on May 1, 2016 at 7:23 PM

Hi, Raoul ! Welcome! Great to have you with us.
Very nice first post! You have a great subject, quite sharp, bright eye, and an interesting background and foreground. Perfect placement in the frame, too.
Looking forward to more of your images, and also to your comments and suggestions on the postings of others. We all learn from each other.
Check out the regional forums too - (under "forums" at the top) - you can post there too, and may even find someone close to you to shoot with.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Williams on May 1, 2016 at 8:51 PM

Welcome to NPN Raoul. It kept good detail for such a large crop. I like what you did with the crop too.

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

Comment posted by Ken Archer on May 2, 2016 at 3:44 AM

Welcome to NPN Raoul crying

Very nice close-up of this youngster. I like how the oof foreground frames the bird. A very pleasing composition also.

Sweet One!

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

Comment posted by David Schoen on May 2, 2016 at 11:36 AM

A very nice composition with good placement of the Little Blue Heron. Everything is in focus that needs to be and everything is out of focus that needs to be. Good job on the background and foreground. Welcome to NPN and keep up the good work.

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on May 2, 2016 at 1:34 PM

Welcome to NPN and the Avian Gallery, Raoul. This is a very nice first post. Detail and exposure of the heron are excellent as is the composition and separation from the bg. There's enough reedy texture in the foreground to provide some nice habitat. My only suggestion would be to separate the heron on another layer and run some noise reduction on the bg. It's not apparent in the smaller image, but it's starting to show in the larger image and since the software is available, you might as well take advantage of it.

This is a wonderful place to learn and I encourage you to read the comments on other images and to make your own comments. You don't need to worry about being "wrong". Just say what you like or don't like about the image and leave it at that.

devil

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

Comment posted by Steve Thompson on May 2, 2016 at 4:33 PM

Really nice post Raoul, welcome to NPN. I recently spent some time with these guy's myself. I like the "poking head up" pose you captured but I agree with Dennis concerning the noise visible in the large image. Should be an easy fix. Looking forward to more...

Registered on August 7, 2014, 125 Posts, 2319 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on May 2, 2016 at 5:28 PM

Welcome to NPN Raoul, I like this portrait with him peaking above the oof foreground grasses nice lighting and colors. I wish for a bit of a head turn toward the camera but they don't always cooperate. Looking forward to seeing more of your images. devil

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

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on May 4, 2016 at 10:23 PM

First, welcome to NPN Raoul. Nice first post. I like the overall comp and you have the perfect amount of OOF FG. In a perfect world, I wish the bird gave you just a little bit more head turn toward the viewer, but this still works as posted. Nice job!

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