Conflict at the Rookery

[Craig Brelsford]

And a great time was had by all at the Elephant Hill rookery in Jiangxi, China. Photographers converge on the site each year to photograph hundreds of breeding egrets and herons. Chinese photographers discovered the site, and some of the local people capitalized, erecting a building whose inner rooms serve as a hotel and whose roof serves as a shooting gallery. The locals also chase away the poachers who come hunting for plumes. A minor environmental success story in a country that sorely needs good environmental news . . . Here, a great white egret draws a snap from a black-crowned night heron, whose nest is just visible in the bottom right-hand corner.

Device: Nikon D3S
Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
Focal Length: 600mm
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/6400
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: -0.33
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 1600
Subject Distance: 31.6 m
Photoshoppery: Noise reduction on OOF BG. Minor sharpening. Some recovery for the hot spots. I had to substantially shrink and lower the quality of this image to shoehorn it under the 200 KB cutoff.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice action that you froze here, and I like the "evergreen" setting. Looks like you had tough light angle, but you've exposed best you could for that. With such high SS I'm wondering if you could have lowered the ISO and saved yourself a step in PS. I would also experiment with a warmer version of the image.

Thanks for the background story of this place, great to hear some good environmental success stories from around the world...I love that the locals are being protective of the area

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with nice action. And a good story. Image looks quite flat (no contrast) and the WHITEs look pretty gray. Would have been stronger with the night-heron facing towards us....

[Craig Brelsford]

Gracias Arturo, merci Daniel!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Craig, good action captured here, and two species that I have never seen together or interacting. The whites are well exposed. It does look overcast???