Donald: I will comment on your picture based on what I feel and do. I am no bird photographer although my frequent trips to the Everglades National Park eventually could make me an "expert."
In the first place, I am sure most of your viewers would have preferred to see the whole bird. From looking at the picture it seems to me that it is slightly overexposed. I do not see good detail in the feathers and the bright areas tend to go too bright. Useless to say that slight underexposure will saturate the colors and the blue water will look much better than here.
My tendency, and I can only speak on my behalf, is to show the whole bird in its environment. I understand that at times that environment might not be interesting and if so I refrain from shooting or come as close as I can. Birds in the process of doing something they do routinely, like fishing, adds interest to the shot.
Try what I said next time. Be selective and patient when doing this type of shooting and I bet your pictures will improve considerably.
I hope this helps.
William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida.
I think as a shot it has potential, certainly I am no expert and rarely does anyone post comments to my work when I post it.
The biggest let down on the shot is that the whole bird isn't in the frame and you could possibly benefit when from a slightly lower viewpoint, but then again maybe it wasn't possible to back up further or get down lower in this situation. It is every so slightly over exposed but that could be brought down easily in Photoshop. If in eyeing the subject up or after composing it through the viewfinder the shot wasn't perfect I would just walk away, photography is supposed to be fun, to keep experimenting.
I agree with what others have said. This is an example of where details of equipment, settings and PP would have been useful.
It seems to my eyes that flash was used for this shot? I think that that has caused the exposure problems with the whites on the bird's head and neck. It (the bird) is a bit soft (or possibly blurred due to camera shake - did you use a tripod?) which is odd since you seem to have been using a fairly small aperture which has given too much DOF. I would always use f/6.3 - 7.1 for a bird of this size to make it stand out from the distracting background.
If you had gone for (and were close enough to get) a close-up of the head then landscape (horizontal) format would have suited this fine, but as it is it requires portrait (vertical) format; I would have included the whole bird even if the lower part and legs were obscured in part by vegetation.
