Work it!!

[Lance Peters]

When you get a co-operative subject - be sure to work it - we tend not to have as many people friendly birds as you seem to have in Florida - so when the opportunity arises - I am always sure to work my subject as best I can.
Same guy as last time - the most amazing wild Egret I have ever come across (Next few shots will be of him to demonstrate my point) worked this guy for about 90 minutes, by the end I was sitting about 10 feet away from him - not bothered by my presence at all - Have quite a lot of frames to choose from in differing light conditions - these colourful ones being amongst my FAV'S as well as some High Key shots.

D3
Nikon 200-400VR @330mm
F8
1/15th
1600ISO
-0.7EV
matrix metering
AWB
Handheld
Cropped and Sharpened

Note the really slow shutter speed - takes a lot of practise to get sharp shots at slow shutter speeds - best to keep your shutter speed at 1 over the focal length to ensure sharp images!! but then again if you are a sucker for punishment .......

Comments welcome.

[Peter Coskun]

I love the warm light here. I actually had a VERY similar encounter with an egret last week, it allowed me to get within 10 feet of it. Worked with it for about 30 minutes and it decide to jump into the brush and rest. If i only got light like this it would have been nice ha. Well done

[Mark Young]

Love the soft tones, and that light reflection in the eye. Congrats on getting so close. Our Egrets up here are too snooby for shots like this! ;)

[Cheryl Flory]

Lance, its a great image!

why did you go with f/8 when a shorter depth of field would have given you a bit faster shutter?

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great soft tones. The whites are dead on. HA end eye contact are also dead on.
Congrats

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

What a lovely mood, especially with the pink background. 1/15 at 330mm and handheld, amazing!

[Gordon McKechnie]

Agree with Thanaboon's comments. Really impressed at the sharpness given handhled @ 1/15

[Lance Peters]

Lance, its a great image!

why did you go with f/8 when a shorter depth of field would have given you a bit faster shutter?

Hi Cheryl - Practice - in my last post of this guy I mentioned I was using him as practice - it is very handy to know what the slowest shutter speed you can handhold at - I tried slower but could not get a acceptable sharp image.

Could have increased the ISO to 6400 - opened up to 2.8. Would have lost some detail on the body though.

[Cheryl Flory]

thanks Lance. while the eye looks gorgeous, the blacks of the eye seem a bit overly sharp/intense for the lighting and softness of the rest of the body. love the translucency of the beak and the wonderful feather softness and yet they still have detail. lovely image.

[Bob Miller]

beautiful shot...love the light and feather detail...the whites are perfectly exposed. What background was this exactly?

[Lance Peters]

beautiful shot...love the light and feather detail...the whites are perfectly exposed. What background was this exactly?

Hi Bob - the BG is a sunset reflected in water - the BG is water.

[Declan Troy]

This appears to be an Intermediate Egret (am I correct?); one identification challenge Florida photographers don't have to deal with.