Early morning mist

I'm not certain if this works or not. I was at a favourite hide for kingfishers and otters (though unfortunately not very productive at the moment) very early on friday morning and found some very misty conditions. There were a couple of herons on the pond and they would occasionally chase each other around, giving me the opportunity to grab a couple of fly by's in the mist. Naturally the mist has softened the image and lowered the contrast somewhat and I can't make up my mind if I really like it or not. What do others think of this sort of thing?
EOS 20D
Sigma 100-300 at 300mm
exp: 1/500 @ f8, iso 400
handheld.
Updated tech details at 22:00 hrs. My apologies, I had incorrectly put in wrong info re camera / lens combo.

I'm a fan of this kind of lighting and its nicely taken. Could levels be tweaked at all to strengthen the darks more? It also appears quite noisy. I like it though!

Hi Robert,

It works for me! Cracking flight shot! Love your choice of composition and the overall setting is great!

I like it! The composition is just right, and the subtle colours definitely make a change from the saturated norm. You could tweak the levels to give the shot more punch, but that would create a completely different mood. Atmospheric shot!
(P.S. - Do you mind me asking where it was taken? Sounds like a great hide!)

Works well

Dave

Thanks for comments. Adam, I did actually tweak the levels and applied a bit of contrast to liven it up a touch which did change the atmosphere of the shot from a very flat image and as Jeremy stated if I change it much more it would probably become a totally different shot. so basically I think I have gone as far as I can take it in that respect. As for the appearance of noise, I'm not very good at the PP side of things so wouldn't be able to do anything about it. To be honest though I thought the 'noise' was just the effect of the mist as I was only shooting at 400 iso. If anyone else can improve it then I'd be happy to learn from that.
Jeremy, I was shooting from one of the public hides at Teifi Marshes. I have had some good days there with Kingfishers and have seen otters on three occasions. However, it has been some time since seeing either as a lot of clearing was carried out during last winter and it doesn't seem to have settled down yet.
Robert

Like the early morning feel to it.
JR

Yes it works for me too, capturing that 'early morning' atmosphere.

Works VERY nicely for me also Robert!!

A fine shot indeed

Alan

Fine shot, Robert.
I like it
Greetings,
Bertl

I also like this a lot, the early morning lighting is very attractive. There does seem to be quite a bit of noise on the black parts of the wing but aside from that very nice.

Matt

I like the shot Robert and the early morning light and mist make the shot, might be worth running it though a noise reducer as the blacks on the Herons wing do look a tad noisy.


Ian

A lovely mood shot, Robert. I like it too.
Eric