Soft Landing

[Dale Villeponteaux]

Is there enough context in this image to understand what's happening, assuming understanding is needed?

[amolitor]

With the title, yes. Without it, no. Possibly if one was a bird expert, it would be obvious from the posture that the bird is landing, but to a layperson like me my first impression is definitely not that the bird has just landed.

The title pointed me to the two faint lines on the water, which put it together for me.

The lens is so long that the bird appears to be in the water essentially at the edge of open water, which makes it appear nearly impossible for the bird to have landed there. I think this is an illusion, and that the bird is in fact well out in open water.

[Dale Villeponteaux]

As I feared.  Thanks for taking the time to answer.  BTW, the Great Blue is landing in the water's edge. It stands in shallow water, striking prey when they come near.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I'm not a bird expert by any means, but I have seem Great Blue Herons landing and hunting, so this photo looks perfectly normal to me. Without the title I might have spent a half second asking myself "Is it taking off or landing?" And I would have quickly said that it looks like landing to me.

It would be nice if the heron were a little bigger in the photo, but that's a minor quibble.

[RSL]

Lightroom tells me that I have 159 pictures of blue herons in my collection, and I can tell you without a doubt that Eric's right. This bird just landed.