Good picutre, but I think it may look better without the soft focus. But that is my personal opinion. It's always your decision what to do with it!

I love it, very interesting idea. Nice bird. Very good shot, Jim.

I like the soft focus, gives a different kind of frame around the heron. Very nice Jimbob, have a good day. Tigs♥ =^..^=

I like the way you have blurred the surrounding area leaving the small area sharp. Good capture of the heron Jimbob.

Like the Center Focus on Mr. Heron JimBokehEdsel....Well Done!

E J

Great capture of the heron!!!

Good effect Jim,Draws the eye in..R.

Beautiful capture and love the softness surrounding him bring the beauty of this fellow out. Lovely colours

I bet the Heron doesn't like the focus on him. They are quite shy. You better quit hitting the bottle when you are out on your photo shoots. Good work.

TicK

(Viewed Full Screen)

I'm a twisted sort, Jimbob. While I like the way you played with the focus, I probably would have described this as an endangered species and then dropped some cross hairs in just to irritate the masses. Wonderful shot. I can't get over the clarity in your shots even at distance.

Nice, sharp and great focus on the bird.

Your spot metering of the heron is spot on perfect Jim. I love the golden grasses.

I like the idea of this but I think it might have been better to sort of 'gradient' the soft focus keeping the focus sharp throughout the center where the lighter colored grass is and just blur the edges of the picture the way it's done on the right half. Nice shot of him! and I love the framing too :)

Too much wasted space on this my friend!....A good crop on the heron would pull it in more!

Tis' worth doing..cos the detail is good

I agree with Bob - the spot focus works but why not zoom in more on the heron and then just blur the little bit around the edges. The detail in this shot is excellent.

Jimbob, think almost everything has been said about the foucus/bokeh of this image. Therefore I would merely say that capturing such a subject can be a very tough job, mate. Have appreciation for the by you done effort to offer us still a very reasonable result!

Regards, Cornelius.

Very interesting image. The eye gets drawn straight to the heron.

A Beautiful photo of the heron,Jim.Lovely colors,and i like that effect.

Don't know Jim. I think your sharp focus would have made the entire picture outstanding. Good color and texture as usual :)

Tough call for me on the focus, Jim, so I will abstain - but it sure does draw the eye to the subject. Nice color and detail on the focused part. Did you use Picasa for the focus treatment? I know that particular program has a feature that allows for this -

Wonderful capture, I like it very much. I love the beautiful bird and the colors around it.

This is different! Howdya do that?...lol...Really great work here Jim! Love it!

There's no missing this fellow. He stands out dramatically amidst the browns of Autumn grasses. Nice job focusing our attention on the heron, Jimbob. I'd love to see one.

I think the soft focus around the subject acts as a nice framing and helps to set the subject apart.

Good use of soft focus on the surrounding grass to focus clearly on the heron. Excellent work, Jim.