Great Blue Heron

[Dawn Currie]

I had a great outing with the Pelican Island Audubon society Saturday morning. I was so inspired, that I decided to make an extra stop on my way home at Sebastian Inlet State Park. That is where I came across this magnificent bird which allowed me to practice photographing birds in flight.

Technical data: Canon 450D, 75-300mm zoom at 210mm, 1/2000, f5.0, ISO 400, post-processing included about 10% crop from original image

[Julie Kenward]

Ahh, my nemesis, the Great Blue Heron! I love these birds but I have the hardest time getting a decent image of them.

You did great getting so much of him in focus but you ended up getting quite a bit of the BG in focus as well. I'm rather surprised you got that much clarity in the BG at f5.0. Was it very close to the bird?

Also, you have him at a point where he's flying past you - getting him earlier and with a head turn towards you instead of slightly away would make for a stronger image. You also have some very harsh lighting and heavy shadows - getting a photo of these guys on an overcast day will warrant a much softer image.

That all said, I think you did a really good job with it being a BIF (bird in flight). Continuing to practice will get you an even stronger image next time! Congrats on your first GBH!

[Dawn Currie]

Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions. I came around a corner of a mangrove and discovered this bird only a few yards away. No time to consider any changes to camera settings from what I had just used on my previous subject. The GBH's face was never towards me, he took his exit perpendicular to where I was standing.

Waiting for an overcast day in central Florida is a bit of a challenge. I've attempted some additional post processing to mitigate the harsh lighting on the bird and darkened the background to make it less distracting. The Florida sun is a challenge I will have to continue to cope with and learn to handle in both shooting and post processing.