Cautious

It was sitting at the far pilling of the pier. Declining sun was behind it. and there was a gentle breeze. I think he just finished the small fish and was just resting. I slowly kept creeping towards him and clicking. This was the last one before it got very suspicious of me and left. Ligtt is coming from its tail end and head got too bright. I love the sunset light reflecting from its eye.

Nikon D200, Sigma 135-400 @ 333mm app. f5.6, ISO 200 and shutter 1/250

Love have your C&C. Regards, ifti

Wonderful shot...lovely colors and details...

Such marvellous detail and such a striking and awe-inspiring presence !  Very impressive.

Kind regards

Jim

Iftikhar,

  Beautiful capture with wonderful details & colors. Thank you for sharing.  Take care, Patsy

PDE

A beautiful shot with very nice details, Iftikhar!

Lovely light and the details. Nice capture and the croping. Like it. All the best. Regards.

Excellent composition, DOF is great, and you have handled the lighting very well.  Overall a very good image.  

Beautiful lighting details. Very good eye coloring.  Well Done.  Gail

Very well image and excellent colours.Very nice description.

Thnx for sharing.

Regards(Bobby).

great capture, very good focuson the eye

Fantastic!!

Good pose and nice light. Best regards, Linh Dinh

Beautiful light playing across it's back. The detail in the feathers is great. 

 Beautiful capture with wonderful details, colors & light. All the best Rajinder

Excellent capture Iftikhar! Superb! Bravo

 

Best regards Sadegh

Great DOF & details, nice warm light & expression, very well composed image, Iftikhar!    Best regards

The light and the capture is impressive. Well done.

Beautiful capture of the bird. Great detail and perfect DOF. Wonderful lighting too. Congrats.

Hi Ifti,

As you said, his tail is a bit lit.  I think it's an interesting effect but here's a quickie shot with PS.  Used quick select tool, brightness/contrast, a a bit of cloning on the really bright spot.

Beautiful as is though.

Ifti...  Magnificent bird and the lighting, whether bright or not, is reality.  You've presented what you saw, and to me that's a great photo... Mike

Fantastic light, great capture! Bravo!

Really a great capture!

Well, as you know, the lighting could have been better, but you couldn't exactly ask him to move to accommodate you!  :-)  All in all, it's a magnificent shot.  I particularly like the tinges of light on his feathers.  I actually was trying to edit it to show you a few changes I would consider, but somehow I lost it.....and I'm not going to try again.  But what I think might help is to reduce the lighting on the piling.  I don't mind the extreme light on his tail, but if you were to get rid of the one bright white spot on his leg and also reduce the hot spots on the piling, I think it would greatly improve it.  My eye tends to go right toward the bright piling at the bottom.  A little burning on the back of his head and a slight sharpening may also be in order.  You've really caught a great pose here, and it must have been a thrill to approach him as you described. 

Excellent shot, with a little work in PS the lighting is easily fixed.But a very nice shot.