C&C - Great Blue Heron Harmony

Patrick,
They are all beautiful.

Can't go wrong with such a great bird as the GBH.

 

Great shots, especially the flight/spread wings. Had to do a double-take there when I saw the cat in the last one.

 

Very nice and sharp images.. What setup are you using patrick?

 

Patrick, it looks like getting up early paid off. Great job on all these.

 

Beautfully done Patrick, my favorite is the 2nd one

What are you shooting with?

 

Excellent shots Patrick. Sorry about the eagles.

 

Beautiful shots, Patrick. Surprised to see that little cat in the picture - guess she's waiting for leftovers from the GBH.

 

Patrick :

Nice work. I'll offer a bit of C&C, but it's not negative in nature, just a few spots for "tweaking" perhaps.

I like the shots - what's not to like about tight photos of GBHs ? - but I would suggest trying D-Light on several of the shots, the first being a prime example, to bring up some of the shadowed areas a bit. It's tough getting the balance on a bird like the GBH with the whites blowing so easily, but D-Light might give you a bit more balance. The change with the application of D-Light (or Digital DEE in earlier versions of NC - I still use that on my laptop when travelling) should be subtle, not large. BTW, run D-Light/DDEE early in processing, certainly before any curves adjustments, as it alters the histograms substantially. I usually sharpen after the DDEE step as well, because it seems to alter sharpening halos (occasionally).

I can't see the EXIFs for your shots, so I'm hampered in commenting on DOF from an aperture perspective, but several shots could have benefited from a bit longer DOF, most especially the last shot with the cat, but also ones like No. 2 as well, where the body is a bit OOF. Of course, another person's hindsight's always pretty accurate, and I'll wager that you weren't thinking about trying to get the cat in clean focus along with the GBH just to please me. :wink:

All that said, nice shots from a great day out. The GBHs I've encountered in my travels in WI and TX of late have been far more skittish, staying far away, and didn't lend themselves to any shots nearly as nice as yours.




John P.

 

Patrick...These are excellent. I don't see much of your work on the forum but I really like these.

 

Patrick
No rust from not shooting these are very nice indeed. Hope you get the eagles next time

 

Glad you could make it out yesterday Patrick. I enjoyed it, even if we didn't get any Eagle shots. If it's any consolation, they didn't stop by the tree today either.  

Very nice shots. :smile:

 

Man I like the 2nd one it's not just sharp and well exp but I dig the pose :wink:

 

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With all of these terrific bird shots I'm seeing on the Cafe - is it safe to assume that most are shot using a teleconverter? In other words, a tele of 300 max wouldn't "cut the mustard"?

 

Diane,

I went shooting at the dam again on Sunday. I had my 300 2.8 + 1.4 TC (420mm) and my 70-200VR + 1.7 TC (120 - 340mm). I took twice as many shots with the 70-200VR + 1.7 TC. That isn't always the case, but there are certainly situations where you can get great shots with this combo.

Having said that, I still want a 600 f4. :tongue: