I selected him, ran an inverse, and then blurred the background. In the process, his edges looked a bit jagged so I tried to smooth them out. I also tried cloning part of his underwing to hide large tree branches that showed up on his wing. This one not my best.

My attempt at Sepia tone.

brightened up the colors.

the oil painting filter.

This is just a basic crop.

Just a crop and sharpened the edges.

Here he is taking off and if you look closely you can see his feet have just left the branches.

I like the way his wings are up high, but have folded down.  His muscles pop out and the strength of his long neck stares you in the face.  I also noticed that his feet dangle downwards and if he were to land he would need to move them up.

The steel grays of his feathers deem him worth y of being a Great Blue.

Before I took these pictures I never knew that there is a bit of orange on the GBH’s wings.

This photo reminds me of a book by Richard Bach called There’s No Such Place as Far Away.

Obviously I was playing with lighting techniques.  His feet are straight, the way a diver wants their feet together and angled as he/she jumps off the dive board and up into the air before landing in the pool.

In this lighting technique I am reminded of someone who is pushing his/her way through a dark cloud and knowing that the perseverence will pay off in the future.

The graceful wings as they curve upwards in lift.

I wanted to keep some of the tops of trees to get a sense of height.

Another Oil Painting filter.

Resting on a branch post flight.