I was visiting a garden early and came across this great blue heron. Captured a series of photos and this one stuck out. It was looking for breakfast and did catch its breakfast that morning which I captured, but happened so quickly
Any feedback would be much appreciated.
Is this a composite: No
Can provide if anyone wants.
What a great setting. All that green really sets off the heron and the reflections work well to enhance the scene. Well done.
Living in a similar environment, I understand quite well the difficulties of balancing greens to everything else as well as working in deep shadows. I applied a radial filter to isolate most of the GBH and his shadow and as well, modified an Urban 6 ACR preset to charge the greens and yellows up a bit, while leaving the shadows pretty much alone. This also popped the reds on the left.
Very nice, with a gorgeous exotic setting and wonderful reflections in calm water! I love the two reflections on the right and left that make circles. @Chris_Calohan has an interesting take. A gradient burn from the bottom is a possible addition. I had a feeling it needs a bit of CCW rotation, and looking at the eye and its reflection confirms that.
Hi Peter
We have two photographs here, you have presented us with the Garden of Eden and Chris has given us a highly stylized Great Blue Heron photograph. Both photographs show a different view of the same seen. Very good work.
Peter
Thank you, Allen!! I’m glad you like it.
Chris, thanks so much for your interpretation!! I did not think of bringing out the Heron too much from the scene as I wanted to work the shadows a bit and hoped that kind of put it more in focus along with the scene. I thought about bringing up the reds just like you did and mentioned, however I didn’t want to overpower the scene, if that makes sense? Just thinking along the lines of it I were to say, have this printed and framed - to see it everyday with some aspects of the scene being vivid and some pop, I feel like I’d get tired of it, just me. Really appreciate your input regardless!
Hi Diane. Thanks so much for your interpretation and feedback! I think what I’ll do when I have some time is take a look at this again and rework the image/scene with yours and Chris’s suggestions and share. 
Thank you, Peter. Really love how you took the two photos, that Chris and I shared and put them into words. Glad you appreciate the images!
A beautiful image, Peter. I love the large depth of field and loose composition of this image. The heron fits beautifully into the setting. I can see some of the suggestions as potential improvements, but this is a really sweet image as posted.
Thank you Dennis! Really appreciate your feedback!
