To me these two pictures are almost  post card perfect. The soft orange glow the grey trunks of the trees stretching out of the reflective water with the heron standing motionless silently waiting for its evening snack to swim by. Where I believe it fails is inf you look close enough the heron, the main subject in my eye, is soft and slightly blurry. This isn’t due to human error, this time, but just pushing my equipment to its limits. I was mounted on a tripod, used a delayed shutter release to minimize movement, all my settings for exposure were on, but it just turned out a little soft. I don’t even mind the softness in the trees and water. This is a bit of a hazy, lazy, dreamy scene and the softness works well, but the bird, I wanted the bird sharp. This is what happens when you push your equipment to the ends of its limits. It was low light and I was zoomed all the way in, a known soft spot for that lens, and this is what I got. It is funny I used to criticize the artists I know for being too over analytical and over self critical I guess I understand now. Here is where my stubbornness is going to either hurl me to great heights or drive me insane. If I had the same scene set up today would I take the shot again, you better believe it. I am a firm believer in it is better to take the shot and not have it work out then to not take the shot at all.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

-Arthur C. Clarke