Heron and the Moon

[Jaedon]

I was out early this morning to see what wildlife is around while we're on vacation and I found a few herons flying around the fields behind us. They were busy hunting in the sand and grass and were very difficult to get a fucus on as they were back lit by the sun and against a greyish backdrop so i decided to set up and shoot the mon in teh blue sky. Wouldn't you know it they took flight as I got set up for the moon and flew into my shot...

Timing as they say... is everything.

I had to cut the Heron and layer him up for adjustments to bring out the colours form the sillhouette I had originally. I will be editing this better when I get it home but for now here's a quick edit from the laptop.

[Knight]

Great Capture Jaedon Were are you on Vacation ? Florida maybe.

[Jaedon]

I am on vacation now and yes I am in Florida. We're about 15 min form Disney in Davenport Florida.

[Loupey]

That is a sweet shot, Jaedon! Good job being aware of what was happening.

If you do reprocess this, please post that image. But I think it is fine as is.

[Copy_Kot]

I could be wrong (sometimes happens ) but I think the bird in the moon shot might be a sand-hill crane... it's a beautiful shot!

[Jaedon]

I believe you are correct Paul. I posted some close ups in the ID thread and PaulNJ Id'd them as such.

They are so tame my 4 year old ran up to them and got within about 8 feet before I chased him down and caught him to keep him away from teh birds. He'll learn... ne day a swan or goose will get him before I do and he'll stop chasing thebirds then lol.

[paulnj]

The first is a sandhill crane BUT the one with the moon is a wood stork (damb I am good :lol

[payn817]

The crane/stork/whatever with the moon is a wonderful capture. Some of the comments in critique are so strange I hardly payany attention anymore. The timing, and your forsight in this image is perfect.

[Speed]

I love the moon shot! Great capture. What lens and settings did you use?

[Jaedon]

I was using my Sigma APO 50 - 500 f4-6.3...shooting at f8 and shutter was at 1/400 ( I think... need to check the file data and notes to be sure... but that sounds about right)

I was zoomed in at max 500 to get the moon as close to full frame as possible and I still cropped about 20-25% of the sky out of the image afterwards.

[Sushigaijin]

Wow what a serendipitous shot. great capture. Only criticism I can give is to fix this:

[quetzal]

Now thats something different.......that bird/moon pic is really cool

[WTP07]

Jay,

I hope you don't mind, I played around a little with this shot...

My wife likes the darker image better, I like this one...(big surprise...we don't agree...)

Let me know your thoughts...

R.

PS, as I am sure you know, we are getting hammered with a storm tonight...-18 and several inches of snow...be glad you are in FLA!

[JSPhoto]

Jaedon,

Alright, your supposed to be takin pictures of RACE CARS, NOT BIRDS


I just had to do that Jay...... nice shot of the moon too!


JS

[paulnj]

wasn't it you who posted some praying mantises in this for JS

[JSPhoto]

wasn't it you who posted some praying mantises in this for JS

Hey, he said he was going for the races, nothing about birds.....


I just had to give him a hard time....then went and posted another nature photo of my own


JS

[Loupey]

Personally, I think darker would be "better" and I would make the bird even more of a silloutte.

A shot like this is not so much about the exact species recognition as it is about the mood. Better to use a more ambiguous bird IMO.

[Sushigaijin]

I agree with Loupey. The first shot is the perfect amount of brightness, I would adjust the levels and curves to get rid of the "dirty glass" look, but maintain the luminosity. If at least a pixel on the moon were white, it would look more natural. Levels adjustments often result in hyper-saturation also, so a little saturation reduction might be needed. I'm still a noob at photoshop myself, but I'm pretty sure that global adjustments are all this needs to really pop off the screen. Give the word and I'll write the book

edit: Whose gunna photoshop in a little baby in a sling first?

[Jaedon]

Well I hope to re-process all of my best shots when I get home. Laptop monitors suck for processing IMHO. There is a better machine here but I am not about to load photoshop on someone elses computer.

I like the brightness of the moon in WTP's edit but I think somewhere in between is where I am going to end up with the final draft of the shot.


WTP - I saw the weather report this morning.....damn glad I am here and not there..... althought I'd rather be there than in Ohio today with the weather front that is dumping all that snow on them atm. 10's of thousands of people without power ane the snow just keeps piling up. Oswego County NY is apparantly at over 12 feet of snow ...in a WEEK!?!?! Only 4 more days till REACEDAY!!! woohoo.
JS.. The races are on sunday =P Gotta shoot something in between. And I am sure you guys do not want to see my kids all the time either (my other subject of choice... but most of them are snapshots taken for memories as opposed to works of art...yet lol)