Black Crowned Night Heron Photo

Photographer’s Note

I took this today at 2-28 Peace Park here in Taipei. At the part, there is a medium sized pond, which has koi, turtles and quite often you see these guys. I am pretty much certain this is a Black Crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax. I guess you would categorize these as a medium sized bird, they stand I would think about 30 cm tall and have kind of stocky bodies. When I googled to find the Latin name for this bird, I was quite surprised to see that it is found in many areas of the world; North and South American, Africa, Europe and Asia. I have only seem them here in Taiwan though (I am no ornithologist). These are cool birds to photograph in that they are capable of s tanding dead still for such a long period of time. Not like trying to capture a sparrow, a relatively long shutter speed can work here.

This is slightly cropped and was shot with my 70-200mm lens and a 2x teleconverter. The effective f/stop would be f/10 and ISO200. I am surprised I could get it this sharp at only 1/100th with an effective focal length (35mm terms) of 600mm. Like I said, they make good subjects.

Kenny10pin, AdrianW, luis_paulino has marked this note useful

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joergen115 (2244) 2004-05-02 5:47 [Comment]

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Kenny10pin (19301) 2004-05-02 6:36

verry clear shot here, i like the positining of the bird, very well done with the focussed areas too.

well done, the bird looks like it is posing for you!!

gringofil (0) 2004-05-02 7:16

I don't really know anything about shooting birds, so this kind of shot works for me. I like how you included the green color both in the foreground and background, because it makes the bird stand out more from the scenery around it. Composition is as always excellent. Nothing to nit pick here, well done Darren. And, yes, I'm also amazed with the sharpness at 600mm...amazing. Well done!

maciekda (19599) 2004-05-02 7:19

hm, birds? you shooting birds? ok, but not too often ;)
nice shot, very good technically, nicely focused, sharp, great DOF and colors,
very nice picture with a bird ;)

eleparc (24059) 2004-05-02 7:40

quite unusual for you darren to shoot birds;-) lol it works for me fine;-) same good old technique i can tell! same sharp focus and greta use of DOF! your good friend maciek does not seem too happy though lol...;-)

ninadev (5225) 2004-05-02 8:43

Very good work. The sharpness of the subject and nicely blurred backgrown with crisp green is just perfect to me.
You'r right these herons are just perfect for a photographer, they stand so still. There are some where I live and I intended to post a shot soon. The interesting particularities of your shot is showing this heron in a tree, I have always seen them on a rock in the river waitin for a fish to pass by.

cdewet (0) 2004-05-02 9:53

Darren
Great ID. bingo! See you enjoy my feathered friends, and your new toy. Lots of shooting fun. The plumage texture is just a bit "funny" in the posting, like too much USM maybe? But the pose makes-up for it.

AdrianW (2243) 2004-05-02 11:11

Nice to see you trying something different, I think we all need to do that from time to time! In my opinion you've done very well here, the contasting colours between the greys/blues of the heron and the greens of the foliage/background work well, and your DOF is nicely controlled - with the OOF leaves in the background setting off the foreground nicely!

I think the only thing extra I'd consider is a little more USM on the heron to bring out some more detail - maybe 20%, 0.8, 0 on LABcolor/Brightness? The pale area above the heron's beak is slightly bright to me, was the unprocessed original better?

Anyway, I like this one a lot :-D

cecile (4193) 2004-05-02 15:53

magnifique posture de l'oiseau, superbes détails!

luis_paulino (904) 2004-05-02 18:17