Beautiful composition.

The sun can be a real problem at times Liz but you have compensated well. This is another fine bird I've never seen b4.
Well done .. Phil

One word*Wonderful*

Nice capture...I knew you would catch you one before long. Great job on the lighting.

Suppose you disburbed it by enjoying its breakfast, lol.
When suitable, like to give you some advice Elizabeth: in such difficult lighting situations, I'm using a, so called 'Fill-in flash' (using a flash gear in the open air just for short distance lighting). The heron may be frightened somewhat, but the result will be better.
Good image though!
Regards, Cornelius.

Wow! nice shot! He looks very busy eating here! Good job of lightening him up!

Bug appétit! So to speak. I see he has flowers and a dinner planned, is there a concert or movie to follow? A lass would be nice too! lol. Elizabeth, a really nice photo ~~ John

Beautiful setting. It is good to see you are learning about
light and the difficulty of shooting wild animals. You don't
get to pick where you will find your subjects and you may not
see them again. I am not a big proponet of fill flash. Especially if you want to take more than one capture of your
subject. I am big on leaving the scene as you found it.

I might have waited for the bird to move into the sun
or toward the camera more so that only shade could be seen in
the view finder. The combo of shade and sun are hard to work
with as the light range is too broad. If the shade is eposed
properly the sun part will be burned out and if the sun part
is exposed properly the shade is too dark as in your image.

How fortunate to catch the bird in a bed of clover. It looks
like it has a crayfish in its bill. It is a shame that the lightening pixelated the wing and increased the grain in your
image.

Garrett

A beautiful scene and great shot of the Night Heron Elizabeth. I totally agree with Garretts comment. I'll be headed to the river to fight with the lighting in the mourning. Nice work
Thanks for sharing

Ed

Very nicely done Elizabeth. You did wonderfully in really troublesome lighting.

Looks like dinner is served for him! LOL. A very good capture. Lyn.

Really a neat capture. He must be having a snack. I think it is a fine shot in spite of the sun not being on your side.

Considering the conditions with the light, you got off a decent shot. Is that a praying mantis it is about to have for dinner?

Jimbob

You shoot what you have to shoot when you have to shoot it. I hope you got some sweeping shots of that clover field as well! Nice catch on the bird with his breakfast.

Believe me I know how hard it is to get wildlife shots in perfect lighting. Sometimes you just do the best you can and deal with it.I love the clover and what looks like a crawfish in his mouth. So you must have done something right to get that much detail. Great capture and thanks for sharing.

Would a neutral density filter have helped with the lighting? Then you could have exposed for the bird only. Great find never the less.

Don't you hate it when the planet gets in the way of your photography! :)) You've been given lots of suggestions now about dealing with these scenes with dramatic contrasts of light/shade. We are all very helpful. :) I often produce two jpegs from the one raw file, one perfect for the subject, one with more information (colour or light depending on if the extreme bit is blown or dark) in the extreme bit of the image, then blend them in The Gimp, easy to do when they are identical images.

I think you have got some good advise about the settings and light.. I agree but I do like this bird post with the lovely flowers! So thanks.. Mich

Dinner time!..lol..:)...beautiful bird and lovely background!!

Beautiful bird, nice composition!

Fantastic shot Alison, I was going to put a shot I took last week of a Heron, Second thoughts now! never the less this is a beauty well done i love it!

It looks like it is in a field of popcorn. Beautiful presentation Elizabeth.

Tick* was here