Heron in waiting

This is all a bit of a cheat, really. I found myself back in the same neighborhood as yesterday. Even though the weather was dull and miserable after overnight rain I still decided to pop into the Botanic Gardens anyway, wondering how they'd look when the sun wasn't shining. I rambled down by the Tolka river which runs along one side, and couldn't believe my luck when I cam across this heron,standing stock still apart from a very occasional shift of head position. Thankful to get anything at all, I wen about other business when I go home.

When it came to checking what was in the camera, this shot, which was the best of the heron, looked rather dull and dreary and lifeless. It's taken quite a bit of post-processing to get it looking like this. So the cheat amounts to making it appear as if we had a nice day here today, when in actual fact it's been dull and dreary.