photoartflightGreat Egret Early Morning Fly-In
Posted on June 16, 2020
These were from many years ago when a group of us would meet at a local Wildlife Area. These images were taken a few minutes after the sun was starting to rise and had not gotten high enough to light the scene. We were still setting up our cameras. This Great Egret suddenly flew in and I was able to get a couple of images. I had not gotten to upping my ISO yet on the camera, so there is a slight motion blur because of the very slow shutter speed. But I still liked the images because of the straight on Egret landing and it’s wing positions. I also added a little High Pass sharpening on the Egret itself to diminish some of the motion blur. Images taken with 400mm Canon DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.
TaDa! Stuck the Landing! 10 points!
Looking Up
Posted on May 27, 2020
This Great Egret landed on a pile of sticks out in the lake at a local Wildlife Refuge. It kept looking up and glancing around. At first I thought it was looking for a hawk that was screeching nearby. But then I saw a few Dragonflies buzzing around above the Egret. It is interesting to watch the Egret pick them out of the air as they fly by.
Great Egret Flying In
Posted on December 17, 2019
The featured image is a Great Egret flying in and landing on the branches that were in the water at a small nature area in Northern NJ. I used to photograph there years ago and since have moved from that area. I was going through images and decided to use these in my blog. As I was working on these images, I liked the reflections in the very still, calm water, giving a smooth mirror image without any small ripples or waves. All images were with a Canon 400mm DO lens.
Later that morning the water started to have a few waves. The Egret stayed for quite a while and seemed content to stay on the branches.
Little Egret Panorama
Posted on August 14, 2019
I was photographing along the Indigo Trail at the Ding Darling NWR early in the morning on this day. We finally had found a large number of birds along the trail. It was quite dark under the trees, but we managed to get a lot of images of a variety of Egrets and Herons while they were foraging for food. With this Egret, I liked it’s reflection in the water and it was just keeping an eye on me as I was photographing it. After shooting a few images of the Egret, I shot vertical images for a long panorama. I was traveling light on this walk so I only had the 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. It was quite dark under all the trees so I had to raise my ISO higher than I like. After assembling in Photoshop, I trimmed the left & right sides a little so the Egret would be more prominent in the long vertical image. Then removed some “noise” from using a higher ISO than normal.
Great Egret 2 Image Panorama
Posted on August 7, 2017
I photographed this Great Egret along the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. I was using a 400mm lens when this Egret landed and walked by. I could not get the whole Egret in one shot so as it was walking along the shore I tried a few 2 shot panos and used the 2 shot series that worked the best for assembling into one image. After I assembled my 2 shot pano, I duplicated the white feathers in another layer and pulled more detail out of the white feathers, since the Egret was in bright sunlight.
Egret Through The Grasses
Posted on June 15, 2017
I photographed this Snowy Egret as it walked by where I was photographing the Osprey nest. There was a batch of grasses in the way, so I waited until the Egret walked into an opening in the row of grasses to get a few shots before it moved along.
Egret Portrait
Posted on June 2, 2017
Usually when you are photographing birds you can not get close enough. In this image I was, sort of, too close. Plus the rest of the Egret was blocked by a concrete spillway. So I could not shoot a bird panorama to get the whole bird. So I settled on a Egret Portrait. Then moved on to the next Osprey nest.
Egret and It’s Shadow
Posted on May 21, 2016
An Egret in early morning with warm sunlight with it’s shadow. I liked the warm strong colors with the strong backlighting and shadow of the Egret. I also underexposed a little to bring out more vibrant colors.
Egret & Heron Trees
Posted on August 23, 2015
One of my favorite spots at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ is this group of two trees near the end of the wildlife drive. It does not look like much at a quick glance, but if you look at what is in the trees it is full of photo opportunities. It is like a bird condo. The tree on the right has 64+ birds that you can see, not counting the ones on the other side and down below on the ground and in the water. The types I found on this pass were Great Egret, Little Egret, Snowy Egret, Immature Little Blue Heron, Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron, in various amounts. Glossy Ibises were foraging in the water beneath and to the side, with Great Blue Herons and Cormorants. Plus there was constant coming and going. I have also seen Hawks, Bald Eagles, Black-crowned Night Herons and Cattle Egrets here. It is a constant coming and going and depending on the water it can be extremely buggy. Sometimes you really have to scan the trees with a long lens and then you say did I see something. This time I saw something that I thought might be a Black-crowned Night-heron and waited for it to maybe move more and show itself. I was surprised to see 2 immature Yellow-Crowned Night-herons, which then flew off. There is also a number of small birds flying in and out. So depending how patient you are and how the bugs are behaving it is a fun place to observe and photograph.
Immature Yellow-crowned Night-herons flying out.
