Green Heron

Found this green Heron in the viera Wetlands
Caanon EOS 7D with EF 500mm f4L IS USM+1.4
1/500, f8.0, ISO 250, Exposure -2/3

Robert,nice light and great bird. I see a couple of points for improvement here. You were off light angle, which brings in shadows. Head angle is off, he is looking away. The light beige stick behind the legs is distracting, as is the top of the frame with the dark spots in the water. In this case I would crop of the top and of the left a little, and try to lighten the back of the bird and top of the head with some dodge and burn in PS.

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mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} </style> <![endif]--> Really great pose and sharpeness.

Lovely shot, I would have a look see at what would happen if the exposure on the bird was increased a little, I get the impression it is just a tad on the dark side.

here is a remake of the photo



Green-Heron-remake by Robert Strickland, on Flickr

I prefer the exposure on the repost, I would however suggest the smaller crop.