Great blue heron, sitting and (?) thinking

Oso

Taken along the beach dunes in Goleta, CA. By keeping appropriate distance and using Nikon 70-300 was able to fire off a bunch of shots of bird in various poses. I like this one best -- just seems different.

Question for anyone interested: I'm not crazy about the bokeh on this shot; seemed like it could look better. I shot at f/8, my thinking being that I wanted to ensure I got the entire bird and beak in focus. Not sure if the bokeh is the product of that decision or if it's because this is the 70-300mm Nikon lens on Nikon DX camera (5100).

Thanks for looking -- Steve

GoofBckt

I think this is a really nice shot. I like the composition. I see what you're saying about the bokeh, but the background is oof enough to give the bird the primary focus. Heron's might seem easy to photograph, but they tend to be difficult to "pop" because of their coloring (IMHO). Good job.
Incidentally, I'm from Goleta.
Carrie

Oso wrote: »

Taken along the beach dunes in Goleta, CA. By keeping appropriate distance and using Nikon 70-300 was able to fire off a bunch of shots of bird in various poses. I like this one best -- just seems different.

Question for anyone interested: I'm not crazy about the bokeh on this shot; seemed like it could look better. I shot at f/8, my thinking being that I wanted to ensure I got the entire bird and beak in focus. Not sure if the bokeh is the product of that decision or if it's because this is the 70-300mm Nikon lens on Nikon DX camera (5100).

Thanks for looking -- Steve

puzzledpaul

Whilst shooting at a wider aperture would probably have helped (a little) with the bg, this type of bg would still present a problem (imo) because of the areas of high contrast - especially those in the far bg @ top R.

Trees / vegetation with brightly lit leaves - in front of dark inner recesses always present such an issue (for me, anyway)

All depends on what you're after, of course.

pp

Oso

Hey Carrie -- Thank you! I had never been to Ellwood Mesa before. Wow -- between the butterfly grove, meadow, cliffs and beach, quite a fun place to have a camera.

Paul: good point. I was hoping for the background looking a little softer; feels a tad harsh to me. I shot at f/8 at 300mm on a 5.6 lens so I only had one stop to open up and that may not have made much of a difference. I only processed in Lightroom; I might be able to soften it up a bit in Photoshop.

Ideally, it's probably best to shoot a light-colored heron against a dark background. Will be working to find more cooperative heron next time!