Great Blue

[Julie Kenward]

So this weekend I show up at a nearby lake to take some macro/flora photos and, of course, a Great Blue Heron is chomping down on a newly caught fish as I pull up. (Naturally!) I jump out, switch lenses and run as slow and as stealthily as I can towards the other side of the lake where he's feeding. I didn't get there in time but I did get some images of him working the shoreline for another tasty tidbit. All of a sudden, he flies to the island in the middle of the small lake and then takes off towards the east. This is the only image of five that was half way decent.

Now...here are my questions!

Yes, my shutter speed was too low, hence the blurry wings (drats!) so next time I am hunting this guy I should be in TV priority instead of manual mode, correct?

As he was heading northeast and it was early morning (and mildly foggy out) the front wing is underexposed. Should I have done something differently with my exposure??? I only have an oncamera flash at the moment and he was a good 50 feet or so from shore so I'm thinking fill flash wouldn't have worked. Any other ideas?

Also, I know he's flying away from me instead of towards me but I got fairly decent eye contact and head angle, did I not? If the wings had been in focus would this be considered a decent image or is the fact that he's going away from me a dealbreaker in every case?

Your thoughts? (Feel free to let me have it! I'm trying to learn BIF and really want to get better at this!)

Canon 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L
f7.1 @ 1/250th, ISO 400
Manual mode, handheld, no flash

[Daniel Cadieux]

OK Jules, here goes:

Yes, my shutter speed was too low, hence the blurry wings (drats!) so next time I am hunting this guy I should be in TV priority instead of manual mode, correct?

Too slow? Depends on what you wanted to achieve. GBHs are relatively slow flyers so you can get good results at the SS you had (and even less sometimes). I personally don't mind the slight amount of blur in the wings here. With a good panning motion the slowish SS also gave you a nice feeling of movement on the BG. Manual mode was the way to go with the variable BG you had. TV (or AV for that matter) would have given you different exposures for each photograph as the heron crossed darker or brighter patches. If you wanted higher SS, I wouldn't have hesitated to bump up the ISO to 800 (I do so regularly with the 40D) and/or open up the aperture more.

As he was heading northeast and it was early morning (and mildly foggy out) the front wing is underexposed. Should I have done something differently with my exposure??? I only have an oncamera flash at the moment and he was a good 50 feet or so from shore so I'm thinking fill flash wouldn't have worked. Any other ideas?

IMO you have done the best you could considering the camera's dynamic range. With the far wing, tail, and some of the BG highlights already pushing hot, anything more would have resulted in blown details. The culprit for you here was not light quality, but rather light angle. There seems to be some detail in the darks that could be recoverable (be careful with the introduction of noise though). You are correct that 50+ feet is too far for the inboard flash to do anything here.

Also, I know he's flying away from me instead of towards me but I got fairly decent eye contact and head angle, did I not? If the wings had been in focus would this be considered a decent image or is the fact that he's going away from me a dealbreaker in every case?

To be quite honest, for me this flying away angle is a dealbreaker unfortunately. Also notice that the feet are the sharpest part of the image. I know it can be difficult, but try to keep the focus point on the face to ensure proper focus on that part.

[Julie Kenward]

Thank you so much, Daniel. I'll keep those tips in mind. Next time I have to remember to rethink the camera and not just the lens - something I'm really negligent about doing. I get all set to "take macro" and totally forget that I need to rethink everything and not just the glass on the end.

Great advice - thanks so much for the effort!

[Fabs Forns]

Excellent critique from DC, agree the going away is the culprit. I love the surrounding water and colors, though.

[Tony Whitehead]

Dan has nailed this crit, Julie. I agree the blur doesn't bother me. Manual is the way to go in this situation. BG colours are lovely.

[Connie Mier]

Seems like you've received great advice from the experts. You captured it with a lovely bg and I do like the blur on the wings.

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks everyone. I have another version where I used a "simplifier" action on the image and that smoothed out the BG even more. I then added a touch of "glow" for additional fog and it's a pretty neat looking image...for anyone that doesn't know he's not supposed to be looking away from me!

Hey, I was just so happy to get the opportunity to photograph him. They are common in my area but not at every lake/every time. It's a real crap shoot to find one and to get him in morning light...I was pretty happy that morning. I'll sure keep trying!