I am still working on thousands of photos from the St Augustine rookery. This one was cropped quite a bit (9MP from a 24MP camera) because the nest is a little far so I am hoping the IQ stands the crop. I shot this from a tripod at 600mm, f/8, 1/250, ISO 800. The original file is shown below. I did not do a lot of processing on this one other than what can be done on LR and post-resize sharpening using Nik. I brought down the exposure by 0.3 stop. I spot metered the chicks' feather to avoid blowing up the whites. Highlights is all the way down, brought up the shadows and whites (about halfway), and increase contrast by bringing down the black a little bit then adjusted the curve. My composition goal here is to show the great egret's nest in its natural form. I think this particular shot is quite a clean one.
It's fascinating to see these chicks. I thought I would have a better shot the day after, but these chicks were no longer seen then. A few of us in the rookery suspected that they have fallen into the alligator pond.
Adhika, I like this very much. It looks like you have been using your clone tool on the two chicks. I like the nest material and the way the foliage frames them. It's sad to hear you didn't see them again. They look way to young to be off by themselves. I suppose alligators have to eat too.
You did very well with a difficult scene. It's a nice composition and a very nice setting. Egret chicks are so ugly-cute -- hope you got lots of shots. That must be one of the best places to shoot them.
It's nice to find a nest with a good view into it. The ones I find always seem to have sticks in front of the occupants. And its also so common to have adults in the BG contributing blotches of white without much other characterization. You might be able to remove the one in the UR and darken the light area on the bottom border. The one behind them is a case of that's nature. Is that an egg in the LR?
You may be pushing the limits of cropping -- hard to be sure at the size here. Another possibility is to leave more image (less crop) on the bottom and both sides, as the setting is very nice and including all of the other white blobs at least gives more of an idea what they are. If you have some frames with them looking right, the light in the LR looks very interesting. Would be nice to include it in a crop.
Thanks, Glennie & Diane. In this one they are perfectly parallel to each other, on the other they are pretty crazy and I didn't find them very pleasing. I think it's kinda nice to see a repetition in the "chaotic" nest. Indeed, the atmosphere here is quite nice and I think the branch and the leaves make some kinds of natural frame around the bird. And yes, I think that one on the LR is an egg. I am not sure how to include that in the frame to be more prominent; it's like an after thought right now. Does it matter? Maybe, not so much.
To give you an idea of the original file, here is a 100% screenshot from LR (unsharpened).
That's amazing Adhika. Do they have green skin? I like the way you think about chaos and repetition. Sounds like my life really. What would you say about a more horizontal crop to include more nest on the RHS and bring down the top quite a bit?
Glennie, yeah, apparently they have green skin. I don't know if they have the same green color as they mature, but this thing is ugly when they are featherless, I think.
Great Egret Nestlings
