Great Egret

[Tom Walter]

This egret is making its move toward a fish it has spotted. In 3 seconds it will have a fish in its mouth. I like the lighting even though the head is in the shade. This is the first of a series of three images of this bird. The lesson from this shoot is to be ready as soon as you approach the area where you might find birds. This occurred within seconds after I arrived at the shoreline of our subdivision lake.

Nikon D200
Nikon 70-300 4.5-5.6G VR
Hand held
1/2000 sec at f 5.6
ISO 400

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the captured moment and details. I would give it more space right and bottom and wish the sun would have been behind you.

[John Chardine]

Nice capture of action and a very interesting pose. The lighting is difficult but this is attractive nonetheless. I see the bird has lost some toes on left foot!

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Tom, big welcome to BPN, are you the third generation photographer BPN member???

If so, thanks for being part of us and for keeping the spirit of photography in the family, good job!
Difficult light as mentioned, nice pose. Maybe a little more room for the bird to fall into.

Will be looking forward to more :)

[Tom Walter]

Yes, I am the oldest of the three generations of BPN photographers, two in Quebec and me in Illinois. I wish I did have more room at the bottom and in front of the egret but there is none in the image. The bottom is the bank of the lake. In retrospect I was zoomed in too tight. The image you see is essentially full frame. Tomorrow I will post the image of the egret with the fish it caught 3 seconds after I took this image. Isn't digital great for recording the exact time the shutter clicks?

[Robert Amoruso]

Hi Tom,

I am going to quote Artie, "zoom wider and pan faster". You captured some nice action and keeping that quote in mind will help in framing and panning.

Looks like you were pretty close and this would be a good time for some fill-flash.