Great Blue Heron (A little lost I think!)

After a long day in town, I went with my good friend on a trip to Orlando to
see her parents and get some of her stuff done. Afterwards I asked if we
could stop somewhere I could snap some photos. She headed for downtown
and I expected buildings. Instead she took me to this nice park and I got a
few good photos. These are the best two, IMHO. Had to brisk that wind-chill
40F weather with minimal coverage (Gee, go figure I grab the camera but no jacket).

Comments & Critique welcome! Thanks...

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The GBH is a good bird to practice on. Of the two, I would pick the second. The images look a little dark to me and could benefit from better light, some flash to brighten things up (don't know if you photograph birds often but they are generally remarkably oblivious to flash), and/or working a bit with highlights in post-processing. I think you have decent images to work work now work to make the better. Good luck.

Really? They look fine on my laptop. I was thinking that the light worked better
vs. what I could do with PS's Shadow/Highlight feature to try and brighten the shadows up.

I don't tend to be able to get close enough for the camera's build in flash to work.
I still need a external flash and it probably would've helped. But I think that for what
I had and the conditions they turned out better then expected. I'll try filling in the shadows
and see if I can get something better then my first try...