Great Blue Heron Reflected....

[jprzybyla]

Well done, Joe.

Thanks Paul for taking time to view and comment.

[rpcrowe]

I love it! One of the attributes I like is that the reflection is not a mirror image of the heron but is disturbed by the ripples on the water surface...

[Daisy Mae]

Joe..I can only add my humble praise to everyone elses.

It's quite simply stunning. Great work!

[Bobobird]

Came back in to take another look - IT IS A STUNNER!!!!

[jprzybyla]

I love it! One of the attributes I like is that the reflection is not a mirror image of the heron but is disturbed by the ripples on the water surface...

Thank you Richard, the more I capture them the more I become fond of reflections and the compositions including them.

[jprzybyla]

Joe..I can only add my humble praise to everyone elses.

It's quite simply stunning. Great work!

Hello Sharon, thank you for viewing and commenting... very much appreciated.

[jprzybyla]

Came back in to take another look - IT IS A STUNNER!!!!

Hey Bobo, I am pleased you found it worthy of a second look. Thank you.

[Teton Chuck]

Joe, I agree with all above. Beautiful shot. I love the way you captured the drops of water coming off of the beak and reflected perfectly in the pond. I would love to have a couple of weeks to photograph in your neck of the woods. Even better, to do it with you. I would learn a lot.

[jprzybyla]

Joe, I agree with all above. Beautiful shot. I love the way you captured the drops of water coming off of the beak and reflected perfectly in the pond. I would love to have a couple of weeks to photograph in your neck of the woods. Even better, to do it with you. I would learn a lot.

Thanks Chuck, your viewing and comment is very much appreciated. Florida does not have mountains, moose or elk but it does have wetlands, beaches and birds. If you ever plan to come to Florida please let me know.

[wlou]

Joe this picture is stunning. I too looked at it more than once appreciating all the details. As I consider myself still a beginner, I would appreciate if you would share with us a little of the intricacies of taking such a picture and possprocessing it. If it is not too much to ask of course. It is so pleasingly graceful and stylish.

[jprzybyla]

Joe this picture is stunning. I too looked at it more than once appreciating all the details. As I consider myself still a beginner, I would appreciate if you would share with us a little of the intricacies of taking such a picture and possprocessing it. If it is not too much to ask of course. It is so pleasingly graceful and stylish.

Hello Louise, thank you for your comment. I think what makes this image special is the conditions that morning. My wife and I were driving to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see what birds may be available to photograph. Across the bridge from Titusville, Florida to the island there is a small park with water on both sides of the road. I glanced to the left and saw the Herons but continued driving almost ignoring them. I turned around and returned to shoot the images. Florida normally has wind but early morning is calm before the winds come up. The light that morning was special which I believe made the image. As for post processing I do not do anything special. I use Adobe Lightroom 4. I always crop the image first, letting the image dictate what is pleasing to my eye. Then in the Develop Module I begin with Basic to get the exposure that pleases me. I always beging with Auto and work from there, next adjusting the white and black clipping points from what shows in the histogram. I then look to the hightlights and shadows using the sliders to tweak those. Then the Clarity and Vibrance sliders to enhance the image, rarely touching the Saturation slider. Most times in the Tone Curve I am using Medium Contrast from the presets. Sharpeness is applied as needed viewing the image at 100% as I think is needed. I set the Lens Correction and Chromatic Abberation check boxes in the Lens Corrections Module then I open the image as a TIFF in Photoshop Elements 10. I always apply a slight Local Contrast Enhancement using Unsharp Mask at a setting of the Amount between 10-20 and a Radius of 200. Then I save the image. Basically I just work at it until something says... that's it. I have really been working on how the light hits the image and the quality of the light. I think that is the one aspect that has shown the biggest improvement in the images I shoot. I hope this helps, I really do not think I do anything special other than shooting a lot of images (30,000 last year) and trying to learn from each.