Angel in Full Flare

[Arthur Morris]

This Great Egret was photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in Ft. Myers Beach, FL with the 70-200mm f/4L IS lens (handheld at 106mm) with the Canon EOS-50D. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/2000 sec. at f/7.1.

With the bird on the right side of the frame, I opted to leave the pelican in the BKGR for COMP balance.

AI Servo AF accuracy with the 50D was excellent.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome. I am here to learn too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The light and underwing details look great. I also like the wavelet. It looks as if it needs some CW rotation. I find the pelican a bit small.

[Mike Dale]

Beautiful shot, excellent exposure and sharpness. I would remove the Pelican as I find it distracting.

[Gavin Spooner]

Great shot but I agree, I don't think the Pelican works.

Gotta love LEL. I hope to be there sometime this weekend.
Gavin

[Sid Garige]

Pelican not working for me too Artie.

[Grace Scalzo]

Not buying the pelican either, but love the pose of the great egret, esp the feet.

[bill kominsky]

From one Brooklynite to another the image is stunning Artie in every respect, but agree with the pelican, sorry.

Bill

[Tony Whitehead]

Love the wing detail and light. If the pelican stays it needs CW rotation + which will unbalance the Egret. I suspect you left it in to make sure that we're paying attention :D

[Juan Aragonés]

I like a lot this egret´s pose and the fantastic exposure job and nice BG but the pelican.... huuummm, I think that it is best to clone out.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Another vote for ditching the pelican!!

[Rey Sta Ana]

The OOF pelican image doesn't look pretty but on the other hand it gives depth to the whole image.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I Iove the the details in the whites and the wing position,agree for the OOF pelican!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Another vote for pelican removal:) Find that the water circles under the foot balance the image and give it an extra focal point. Just curious how you would know if it is straight when you H hold and where your focus point was with 7.1. (On the eye???) Looks like he is pretty much all in focus. Pretty basic questions I know.

[Raymond Barlow]

I am wondering were balance comes into play here?? but the egret pose is awesome!!

[Arthur Morris]

Another vote for pelican removal:) Find that the water circles under the foot balance the image and give it an extra focal point. Just curious how you would know if it is straight when you H hold and where your focus point was with 7.1. (On the eye???) Looks like he is pretty much all in focus. Pretty basic questions I know.

Hi Jackie, See the next pane for pelican removal and my comments on same. When hand-holding you rely only on your kinesthetic sense as to what is level and what is not. I used the central sensor for this image and sharpest focus was on the base of the bird's right drumstick. The head was selectively sharpened with a contrast mask (Unsharp Mask: 15/65/1) via a Quick Mask. The f/7.1 helped a bit...

[Arthur Morris]

By popular demand, the pelican has been covered with a Quick Mask of the opposite corner and the bird was leveled via a line between the two alulas. Though ditching the pelican was pretty much unanimous I still like it a lot better with the pelican.

[Eleanor Kee Wellman]

Beautiful wing position and detail. Exposure perfect, of course! I do like the second version without the pelican, though, as it wasn't in a good place in the frame, for me, and didn't add to the composition. It would have worked better for me if there had been more room above the pelican and the water trail behind it had been horizontal.

[Krijn Trimbos]

Absolutely gorgeous! Love the pose, the water droplet hitting the water and the rest of the water being calm. Exposure perfect! Would defenitly go for the one without the pelican, but would maybe crop a bit off the left for composition balance in your repost?? Excellent either way though, so wish it was mine!!