seascapes "The Great Blue Heron"

Taken at Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon. This was taken after

sunset.

I especially like the light on the Heron's head.  The wave action serves as a wonderful backdrop.  Good use of DoF too.

Gary,  I like this image as it is.  The sea stacks, motion of the water, and light in the mid to foreground is nice.  I tried to get more emphasis on the bird, so I cropped the image, lowered the exposure on the sky a bit with a neutral density filter in ACR, and tried to open the shadows on the heron and add a bit of highlights on the bird as well.  This tinkering is not better than your image, just an idea about another way to show the image.  What do you think.  Nice work.  You were lucky to see the heron at this wonderful spot on the Oregon coast.  Best to you. Larry

Here's the cropped image.  Larry

Thank you for the cropping idea. I do like it and that may be a good alternative to the full crop. I appreciate your taking the time to work with it and give some great input! I had gone down there to take pictures of the sunset, but was just there for a few moments when i spotted the heron. I'll probably have a couple more shots of him from this outing as he moved around a bit.

Thanks again Larry!

~Gary

I like your shutter speed -- slow enough to get some sense of movement, but fast enough to retain some form and texture in the water.  It's a speed that Goldilocks would like.

I like the editing that Larry did to emphasize the heron.  The vertical crop places a lot more emphasis on the bird as a bird, and it removes some of the context that defines the heron's habitat.  I can see merits to both, depending on what a person wants to emphasize.  Personally, I like the original best, but I've always been more of an ecologist rather than an ornithologist; I think that's the main difference.

Thank you so much for commenting. I agree too, that both crops have their own merits, and I really like both. Since I'm more of a landscape kinda guy, I'd probably lean towards the full crop, but there may be situations where Larry's crop might be a better fit if someone was more about the heron than the landscape aspect of the photo.

Thanks again,

~ Gary

I also agree that both versions ( the original and cropped) have their own qualities of being particularly good.  I think one important element in both is the presence of the rocks on each side of the photo that brings me back to the heron. Excellently composed and rendered.

Thank you very much for your comments!

~Gary