White Heron - broadside

[Terry Johnson]

Hello, this is an image of a white heron taken last weekend at the Ridgefield Wildlife refuge. It was a bright sunny day. The bird was about 30 yards away.

Camera data:

Nikon D800
Nikon 70-200mm with 2.x teleconverter at 300mm
F8
ISO-160
1/750 of a second
A-Priority

Thanks for viewing...Terry Johnson

[dankearl]

Terry,
A couple of things about your image.
Ridgefield can be a nice place for some birds (raptors), but waders and ducks you will be looking down at, out the car window
as you are in this photo, not a great POV.
Is there a reaon to use F8 here?
I would shoot birds manual, f8 will not get you a very nice bokeh in this situation.
Iso 160 (are you using auto iso?) is very low for birds, I would use a minimum of 400 and I use a minimum of 800 with
the D800. You will always have better success with a fast SS.
I would also try for a better pose, a better Head angle where the bird is at least kind of looking toward the camera.
Egrets are very common, it should be easy to find one with a better pose.
You did a nice job of keeping the whites intact in the sun, not easy to do with these guys.
Hope this helps.

[Karl Egressy]

As Dan stated, the POV and surrounding are not the best. Good job on exposure.

[Terry Johnson]

Hi guys, thanks for the response, I agree that Ridgefield is an out-the-window shooting experience and is frustrating as you get an unwanted background in your images. I am trying, impatiently, to get a better head angle as I have been chastised by one moderator for not doing so. I was using F8 as some of my previous images had areas of the subject out of focus. Raptors, as you mentioned are a pretty good target if you have 500+ on the focal length. I am trying to do the best that I can with the equipment available to me. By the way, is the bird an egret or a white heron?

Thanks again for the input...Terry Johnson

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Terry,
A beautiful and challenging bird to photograph! This is a Great Egret.... it is quite similar to a White Heron (which is actually a White Morph of a Great Blue Heron and pretty much only found in southern Florida.) As Spring approaches you will probably be able to get some cool behavior shots... they also grow long beautiful white plumes on their backs during breeding season.