Snowy Skimmer?

[Dan Brown]

This is a first for me, witnessing Snowy Egrets "skimming" sort of! The birds would loop out from shore and drag their toes in the water while flying slow, then when they saw a fish, they would dart their head/neck down and grab it! Cool behavior! Captured this morning, cropped and PP'ed in ACR and CS3.

Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 400mm
Focal length: 600mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: AF-C

[Bill Jobes]

That is pretty cool, Dan! Perhaps you've documented an evolutionary trend for the avian scientists!
I like the crop and composition very much.
You may want to consider some selective recovery of the detail in the bright whites from the mid-back through the extended neck.
Everything else seems to be nicely balanced.

[Alan Murphy]

Dan, great timing and planning. A tighter crop would be nice if it can hold up.

[Stu Bowie]

I like the detail from the underwings, and well exposed too. I would maybe take a bit off the top. Well captured Dan.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pretty cool behavior you captured here Dan! Nice wing positions. I agree a tighter crop would be nice if it holds up well. The image may need CW rotation, and to me the wings look like they could go a little lighter.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi. I've seen Great Egrets do this as well. It seems they resort to this feeding method when rains make their usual "wading grounds" too deep. The light is harsh, yet you got enough reflection off the waters surface to lighten the shadows. I would have liked to have a better view of the birds head, maybe a little eye contact? Nice catch! ~Bill

[Dan Brown]

Hi. I've seen Great Egrets do this as well. It seems they resort to this feeding method when rains make their usual "wading grounds" too deep. The light is harsh, yet you got enough reflection off the waters surface to lighten the shadows. I would have liked to have a better view of the birds head, maybe a little eye contact? Nice catch! ~Bill

Thanks Bill. I don't know what qualifies the light as being "harsh" however. The image was captured at 6:40am PST, which is about 50 minutes after sunrise and the histogram showed no right side clipping at all in ACR. Maybe the upload to BPN has changed this, but IMO, the light was not harsh:).

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Dan: I was judging the high contrast by the dark shadows near the egrets neck, and how it seems to be attenuated by water reflections. The fact that it was early has no effect on how harsh or soft the light is. It is that direct sunlight, regardless of the time of day, that is not mediated by clouds(or mist or smoke, etc) creates high contrast. Granted, the light intensity may be somewhat reduced, especially right after sunrise, yet direct light (in one direction) produces high contrast images. The fact that there was no clipping was because you exposed correctly for the situation. Also the fact that it was over water creates a similar effect to fill-flash in that the reflected light tends to fill in the shadows, as it did here. Now if you told me there were thin clouds on the horizon, which occurs quite often before they burn off later in the morning, I would be completely incorrect. regards~Bill
regards~Bill