Nice stalking on your part, but I'm a curious person so I have to ask, what did you do to get the colors that I see in the last four shots? The first shot looks natural but the last four look tweaked, for lack of a better word.
Joe! Sorry, I'm just getting around to a reply. It's been busy around here. In a nutshell, the heron was in the shade and it was a sunny day. The sun helps in pushing the fish under available canopy which is scarce in this particular pond so, with no other herons around, this heron literally has it made in the shade. each of these shots are from different sequences. I watched time after time as he took one or two each time.
These are some of my favorite shots from that day. I also consider them grab shots, they were there for the taking with no tripod and adjusting the controls on the fly as I was walking back and forth from the common goldeneye that was just a few hundred feet away and putting on a show. The first photo that you described as being natural was taken during the time for the best lighting, reminding you, this not a particular sequence; in all actuality in terms of the line-up presented, the first shot should really be placed in the middle or further towards the end in a time frame sequence, I was at the garden for almost 3 hours. I wanted the light to really drive the image and little processing was needed for this picture, It was also around the time the heron was taking a break from his snacking, he went a little whiles before his next bite.
The next four photos are with the fish in beak. The lighting wasn't nearly what it was in the first image so, that needed to be addressed in processing with some nudging of contrast, gamma and lighting sliders. I also utilized post-HDR processing to add a little sharpness and vivid features in the last four photos to bring out the in the moment action. I also did some minimal cropping in most of the images.
I have a couple of things to do right now but, I will add each of the 5 original images before any processing was ever done for comparison later on.
Good eye Joe! I was wondering if adding the one top picture was going to draw a question & comment and it did! At first I thought the one photo was such a contrast to the others, it may be out of place but, glad I added it here.
Chad