The Great Blue Heron was too far away for me to capture many details, but the light early yesterday morning was especially beautiful, so I decided to pull back and try to capture the landscape, something that I don’t do very often.
I love the rich bands of color that I managed to capture in this shot and the gorgeous reflections in the water at my local marshland park. The red color, I believe, is from buds that were stripped from the trees by winds and rain this past week.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
What a beautiful picture, Mike! Everything really works together here. Your composition is most excellent. I don’t think a tighter crop could have been any better than this one. And all the red buds–what a bonus!
It is a beautiful photo. I really enjoyed your Great Blue Heron information.
Good decision to make a great photo. The colour and reflections are marvelous.
Thanks, Lyle. I like to follow the adage of the Old West, “Shoot first and ask questions later.”
haha… I’m going to use that quote Mike!!! lol.
I think the reflection is all the more powerful with the surrounding landscape!
Thanks. I had similar thoughts when I considered cropping it tighter.
It’s a keeper and a framer
Gorgeous color!
Thanks. The colors are what drew me to the scene, more than the heron, who was far away and really played a secondary role.