Actually an American Bittern in harsh light, but I was very happy to finally get decent photos of one today.
I was shocked to get this close, had to remove the TC.
I got a bunch of photos, for those not familiar, they are extremely shy, I do
not know why this guy let me hang around so close.
1/640
300mm
iso200
f6.3
This is pretty amazing! I don't recall ever seeing a photo of a bittern swimming!!! Light doesn't look too bad to me at all. Sharp with lovely detail. A bit too big and tight in the frame for me though.
Seeing a bittern swim is a first for me too!! Great opportunity you had. Light doesn't look that harsh at all. I agree the comp could use more room (right and bottom), and although the subject looks to be swimmin level, the reflection's alignment indicates a need for some CW rotation (you can try it to see if it improves on the image's overall feel).
Wow...what a unique shot. great details and moment. Since you were working tight and bird being in water, not much opportunity for shadows to distract. Looks like sun was high..but IMO an absolute non-issue here. Excellent work.
I've been birding for close to 40 years and I've never seen an American Bittern swimming like this. It's a great shot from a general standpoint, but it's an amazing shot for the behavior captured.
Thanks for the comments. I will say this was an almost creepy bird encounter. I have seen Bitterns dive into brush, fly off at the instant
they see people.
I approached the bird by accident, got within 30 feet, the Bittern was on the far side of a small stream bank. It continued to creep towards me. I had a 2X extender on my 300 and it
got way too close, I took off the extender while it continued to come toward me. It was on the stream bank and then it "slithered" into the water like
a reptile and crossed the stream towards me, got out of the water and walked up the bank to within 10 feet. It got so close, I have full frame 300mm shots of just the head! It was
puffing and gyrating it's neck and staring at me. I finally left it in the grasses, it crept low and hunkered down. Here is the first of four frames of it entering the stream.
Daniel was right about the swirls and rotation, I straightened it (Maybe I should not have?).
The shot I posted in the OP was even tighter than this, thus because of the straightening it is tight in the frame.
Sorry for rambling, it was a very interesting encounter.
This is the full frame out of camera shot, no pp, just converted to jpeg
Dan, I like the image in pane 9 as much as the original that you posted. (Just crop a bit off the top). It is so unusual from a behavior standpoint, but also exceptionally well photographed. No problem with the light from me. Isn't it fun when you get a bird that behaves like this one did? Great work, and thanks for sharing not only the image but the story behind this encounter.
I think you have a capture here that is quite unquie, it's hard enough to get a still shot of this bird, American Bittern, but to capture it swimming, Congrats. Well done.
Swamp thing
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