The other side
by Tammster

Comment by michael_p:
Looks like the tone mapping is pushed a little too much - personal taste possibly.

Immature Green Heron
by Tammster

Comment by MelonMusketeer:
The background sort of gives the shot a two dimensional effect. There are a lot of people who have a problem with an animal or bird shot that has clearly "human touch" items in them, aka boards, fence, buildings ect. The processing is great for detail and color contrast, however it looks a little overdone to me.
Free study challenges are the toughest, because with all the DPC'ers shooting all month and entering their best shots of the month, the bar is quite a lot higher in voting.
There is nothing really "wrong" with this shot. It's just not a great free study shot that grabs my attention and makes me want to look at it for a while to hunt for the finer details and nuances. You are fortunate to live where you can find such nice and relatively tame birds to photograph.

Immature Green Heron
by Tammster

Comment by JH:
First thing that strikes me is that there's nothing interesting happening with the light in this shot. If you look at the heron, he almost looks like a cardboard cut-out.

Tricolored Heron
by Tammster

Comment by jomari:
Beautiful shot. It almost looks like it's dancing.

The other side
by Tammster

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
Hi Tammy. I saved this one for last, because I was skipping the vote, but I wanted to do a 100% comment. So, here goes. I think the processing here was overdone quite a bit. It looks like it was just cranked up with Topaz. (Please see my Flickr stream for some experiments of mine that did not work) I also know this is probably your first effort with HDR techniques. I would love to see the out of the camera shot, maybe even the RAW, and perhaps see what else we can do with it. If you are still talking to me after this comment.

The other side
by Tammster

Comment by Glacian22:
Ehhh...the dodge and burn on the vines in the front is way to obvious, try a more subtle approach?

Growing up...
by Tammster

Comment by Niecy:
Looks delicious. Good lighting and focus.

I'll figure it out eventually...
by Tammster

Comment by Ja-9:
wow...I just saw this...congrats on a top 5 finish!!! bet your over the moon...great picture...

The other side
by Tammster

Comment by pedrobop:
I'm not a fan of this white glow on the tree and i think it's a little overprocessed. I really like the details and colors though. The sky is nice too.

The other side
by Tammster

Comment by LadyK:
seems like a bit much. interesting scene though, it has quite a few interesting elements