I watched this heron start across on the opposite shore, it flew to mid river looking for food, walked all the way to the bank, turned around and walked back out by the fisherman. I sat and watched hoping the photo would take place. At this time the fisherman does not know the bird is along side of him. I do have another photo showing more of the fisherman’s face but it is slightly soft. Conditions would change but it was mostly overcast. I was at ISO 2000 and shot at 1/320 to keep from using a higher iso. Clinch River, Norris Dam State Park.
Specific Feedback Requested
Anything to improve
Technical Details
Canon 90D
Sigma 150-600@516mm
1/320
F6.3 Iso2000
-0.7 exposure compensation to cut back on water glare.
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I’m not sure what the 90D can handle in the way of iso, Brian, but I don’t think you could get too much more out of it. As a suggestion when you have time as you probably did for this image, taking two shots, one with the fisherman in focus and the other with the heron in focus and combining them could be very effective. It’s still a very cool shot and waiting for it to line up was a very good thing to do.
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Great capture, Brian! That heron knows exactly what he’s doing! Waiting for an easy catch! I used to live near a park where a heron would hang out at a pond and when the fishermen would come he’d stand pretty close waiting for a fish to wriggle away and into his jaws!
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I love the scene and you captured the right moment, so there is not much to improve w.r.t. the message you want to share. Very nice. I don’t need to see more of the fisherman’s face, the way you present it now shows that the fisherman does not know about the bird.
Technically, both the fisherman and the heron aren’t really focussed, so you would need two shots as commented by @Dennis_Plank , or use a smaller aperture. F/6.3 has a very small depth of field at your 516mm. The smaller aperture would render the BG sharper as well, I don’t know if you would like that.
Hello Han, Thank you for the feedback. I agree with you and Dennis that a photo stack would have worked better. But I was hiking at the time, did not have a tripod, and I had to get into a prone position on a railing for the shot. Next time I will just have to lug the tripod with me.
I appreciate your input.
Brian
Hi @Brian_Murphy I’ve done stacks handheld or holding the camera on the ground. You just need to make sure your composition stays about the same between shots. The software does a pretty good job of alignment and you just end up having to crop a bit around the edges.
