Just after sunrise at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This heron was moving slowly as he fished the shallows and stopped in symmetry for a split second.
Any feedback would be welcome.
Is this a composite: No
A lovely reflection, Bill. It’s nice when those work out. To my eye, the Heron looks a bit overexposed, particularly evident in the whites on the head. If you’re saving your files in RAW, you can probably pull the exposure down in your RAW editor. I also think you need a touch of counter-clockwise rotation. In a reflection image, the easiest way to do this is to rotate the image until a conspicuous feature, like the tip of the bill, forms a vertical line between the bird and the same point in the reflection.
I like the way you framed this and I also like how the breast plumes just touch their reflection.
I like the pose and the reflection. The water is great and some of the colors match the heron’s. I might try for some contrast separation between the heron and the water. Maybe darken the heron/enhance the colors a bit??? I must admit that I am extremely challenged when it comes to determining whether a photo is level, so I hesitate to say this, but if anything, I’d have thought a slight clockwise rotation would work.
@Allen_Brooks and @Bill_Reichhardt That’s my bad. It should be clockwise. Rotationally dyslexic.
Dennis, Thank you very much for the feedback. Good points and I will go back and try to improve the overexposure. I didn’t originally see the leveling issue - but now I can see it. This helps me to slow down and work more critically on post processing.
Thanks again, Bill
Allen, Great feedback from you and Dennis. I learn something every time I do this. Thanks, Bill
