I focused a good bit on this species and anhingas on this trip since I didn’t have many shots of either previously. In this shot, I found the bird in the shade at the NWR perched on a mangrove. I think the water acted as a kind of natural reflector here.
Any
Is this a composite: No
Canon 7D2, Sigma 150-600 C, monopod
ISO 640, f7.1, 1/400s
Beautifully sharp and composed and I love the blurry rippled bg. A very minor suggestion would be to clone out the couple of twigs by the bird’s back. But it’s a super shot!
@Mike_Friel , thanks for the suggestion Mike. Here is my attempt at removing those twigs.
Beautiful sharp shot! I love the composition with the leaves partially framing him. The twigs don’t bother me but then again I’ve been shooting lately in much more cluttered environs. 
An excellent image, Allen. The detail in the heron and the pose are superb and I love the perch and the fact that it’s essentially all in focus. The twigs didn’t bother me much, but I do prefer it without them. When I look at the larger image with the twigs removed, it looks as if you used a very soft brush to clone them out. If I’m trying to truncate twigs, I’ll go back to the ends of the cut with a harder brush as fading into obscurity isn’t how the ends of twigs work but that’s an incredibly minor nit on a superb image.
@Terri_Barnett , @Dennis_Plank,
Thanks Terri and Dennis! Dennis, thanks for the tip about using a harder brush to clone the twigs. I reworked it with a harder brush and it does look more realistic.
A really nice image Allen. I like the nice relaxed pose with bird nicely framed by the leaves. Great details.
This one has a very pleasing painterly feel to it. Good job.
The comp is very nice. I like how the mangroves frame the heron. The twigs do not matter to me because they do not obscure the heron. Awesome shot…Jim
