Found this one this morning...first time I've ever seen one not in the zoo! C&C welcome!

1.

Definitely a Green Heron on #6. A very nice series for sure. But I especially like the Greenie (other than that he is perched on a steel rebar). Thanks for sharing Matt.

GREENIE!! Congrats

Nice shots Matt, you got that BCNH looking very sweet! I like the GBH over the greenery, has a nice feel to it. #'s 2,3 and 4 are great images.

Karl

Very nice Matt. I love the pose in the first one. They are all nice and sharp with good detail too. On my monitor they look a tad bid over saturated though. I might need to calibrate again...
Ron

Thanks gentlemen. Ron, I always ride right on the edge of oversaturation for the impact it brings to the photos. Maybe this time I went too far. I really appreciate the feedback!

Beautiful images of these Herons Matt and beautifully presented BCNH's are my favs of the series, especially #s 1 and 4

Tom

beautiful BCNH....#2 is fav with #1 close behind.
Sats look good to me except the greens which sensors generally overdo in good light

Nice find Matt, good job.

Rob

Fine work Matt.

Morris

Tom, Dave, Rob, and Morris...

Thank you very much for the comments! This was really a fun experience, in mostly great light, and what seemed like a fairly tame bird. I was able to get close, probably within 30' at times without disturbing it. Thanks again!

Also, the only color-altering processing that was done on these was in the raw conversion, which I do with Canon's DPP. The saturation slider is bumped to "2" during conversion, but no other processing was done to them after that. I went from DPP to get out of RAW, then into Neat Image for noise, then to PS for the frames. I think on these it was a combination of the lighting and the greens (like Dave mentioned above) that accounted for the look.

Congrats on the BCNH Matt! I'm still working on getting an adult myself so I know the joy you must have felt. I do like the first one the best, great pose!

Tim

Great series Matt,

my favorites are # 1, 2, & 4

Neat Greenie you got.

Lil

Hey Matt, this is an excellent set. #1 is superb. I'd love to know where you found these guys at. Very nicely done.


Dave

Tim...
Thanks! It's nice to get these shots, but even more so to shoot something new for a change. Wish I could have stayed long enough to see breakfast (his, not mine)!

Lil...
I appreciate the comments! As mentioned above, the steel rebar isn't exactly the most choice of perches, but I'll take it!

David...
These were all at Lake Katherine in Palos Heights. The BCNH was at the east end, close to where the stream feeds into the lake. The other two were at the far west end, which (this year) is highly overgrown with vegetation. I happened to see the greenie flying low over the lilly pads and land on that perch. If I hadn't seen it in flight, I would never have been able to spot it there! Thanks again!