Great White Egret with Fish

[John Wright]

Canon EOS 7D, EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM + 1.4x TC, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 400, Gitzo GT3531 tripod with Gitzo GH3780QR ballhead

It was very dark late yesterday afternoon with stormy overcast conditions....nevertheless I decided to try to shoot egrets and herons at a local lake. I photographed this Great White Egret (Casmerodius albus) catching quite a few fish, but this was the pick of the shots. It is fascinating to watch them use their wings to coax/flush fish out from under the surface vegetation! It seemed this bird would first jump and walk forward with both wings outstretched and then change to only using one wing, so I guess it was first spooking a nice target and then tricking it to swimming into the best position for catching. This bird repeated this technique over and over again. Very different from the Black-crowned Night Heron and Grey Heron which were also at the lake - they did the usual 'motionless' technique and waited for fish to come to them! I have other shots in a better position to show the fish, but I liked the wing position in this image, so I decided to share it. The fish is also very dark and almost lost in the background! C&C welcome.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Sounds like this was a very active hunter! Some waders use their wings like this to "lure" fish into the shade it creates in the water close to them, only to then snap up the catch! Your image clearly shows the nice action you witnessed. The egret angled away from the camera is less than ideal though, and it is quite tight in the frame (I am OK with the cut virtual legs as they are not just clipped). I also find the BG a bit too busy: if at all possible at this location, a lower angled combined with a larger aperture (e.g. f/5.6 with the TC) may have helped reduce its impact by rendering it more OOF.

[John Wright]

Thanks for the response, Daniel! This is cropped a little, so I could add more space around the image. I agree about the bird's position and background. Next time I will try a wider aperture, although I wanted to keep both the head and wing in focus and seemed like it needed f/8...