Great Egret In Trees

We were coming back home from the grocery store and were going through the gated entrance for our condo community. I noticed this Great Egret in the trees above the small pond by our back entrance. I had my Canon 7D with me so after I entered through the gate I parked and walked back through the gate to take a few images of the Egret. The Featured Image was taken with a 300mm lens with a 1.4X teleconverter. I wanted to get a wider view to show more of the surrounding scene so I shot a 5 image Panorama to get what I wanted for the pano. I first shot top left, then top right, then bottom left, then bottom right. I finished my series by shooting the center just to make sure I had enough images for the pano and everything lines up correctly. I have found that having that center image helps the blending of the image.

Great Egret & Canada Geese Friends, 5 Image Panorama, Canon 7D, 300mm f/4 lens, Canon 7D

Birds Settling Down At Sunset @ Ding Darling NWR

A couple of colorful sunset images of birds settling down for the evening. I am going through my array of Back-Up Drives making room for newer images and discarding ones I do not need. But along the way I am finding interesting images to post here. Also I am just selecting the best images when I was shooting a series of the bird flying in, etc. then deleting the extra files. The images here were taken many years ago. We were on our way out on the Ding Darling NWR Wildlife Drive as we passed these groups. The Featured Image of the Great Egret landing was taken with a 400mm DO Lens on a Canon 7D @ 6:48. The Group of Wood Storks was taken from the same spot but more to the right 3 minutes later @ 6:51 because I was waiting for a better grouping as they were moving. The distance to both groups were 236 feet according to the Adobe Camera Raw data. Then we had to get going to leave because they were closing and wanted everyone out.

Wood Storks Settling Down In The Water Along Wildlife Drive, 400mm DO lens, Canon 7D

Great Egret Close Fly-By At J.N. Ding Darling NWR

I am going through my backup drives to clear out unneeded files and to make room for backing up recent files. I came across a drive with a lot of images from a trip to J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Florida many years ago that I never used. This is a series of 2 images of a Great Egret. The Featured image is a very close fly-by of the Great Egret taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIV.

Great Egret with meal, 400mm DO lens, Canon 7D

Uprezzing Raw Images In Adobe Camera Raw

When we are at National Wildlife Refuges you often see interesting subjects way off in the distance, but too far away to get good images. Adobe has an “Enhance” feature now that you can “enhance” to Double the size of the image but it only works for certain “Raw”types. But many times I want more enlargement than “Enhance” gives you. I almost always shoot “Raw” images because I can get more detail & adjust them somewhat before opening them in Photoshop. Using Camera Raw I can also “UpRez” my images when using Adobe Camera Raw Data. This way of super uprezzing seems to work quite well most of the time. All you have to do is enter larger amounts in the Image sizing window in the Camera Raw Size Panel. Give it a try! You can also add a “High Pass” Sharpening Technique layer over the final image to enhance the sharpness more. Just adjust the opacity of the sharpness layer to what you like. I have found that when you adjust this lessen the amount a little more for better results. There are other ways to upRez but this is what I use quite often plus it is in your Adobe Photoshop already. So it easily works in my Image Workflow. Also the images here are downsized to 1200 pixel size for WordPress posting so the Full image has much more detail.

Black-Crowned Night-Heron, 400mm Canon DO Lens, Canon 1.4x Teleconverter, Canon 1D mkIV
Screen Grab Showing Up Rezzing image settings by entering higher width number
Full As Shot Great Egret in Trees Image. 400mm DO Lens, 1.4X Teleconverter, 1D mk IV
Great Egret, Image Uprezzed & Cropped Showing Detail

Great Egret FlyBy

This is an image taken years ago at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ. I was photographing other birds in the distance when this Great Egret flew close by me. I was able to get one image in focus as it passed by me before it changed course and flew away. It was so close I had to clip the one wingtip. I was using a Canon 20D with a 400mm DO lens.

Image with retouched wingtip & blue sky added added

Great Egret Catching A Snack

Going through Backup Drives working on images that I did not have time to adjust or work on when I was still working. This is from a photo trip to the J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Florida 2 years ago. As we were walking along the Wildlife Drive I noticed this Great Egret working its way in the water channel along the Drive. It got to a sunlit section and I was able to get a couple of images before it flew off. Images taken with a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm with a 1.4X Teleconverter @ 840mm, f/16, 1/640 sec. Because it was in the bright sun I also set the Camera to a -2/3 exposure compensation to hold detail in the white Egret.

Great Egret With A Snack, 600mm @ f/16, -2/3rds Exposure Compensation with a 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon R

Great Egret At Brigantine

We finally got to go to one of our favorite National Wildlife Refuges, the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ. On this day the wildlife was few and far between but it was still fun to get out and photograph. The cloudscapes & landscapes were Great and the Green Headed Flies were not biting as much as other visits! So it was a Great Day to be out and photograph! For this post I am using images of a Great Egret that seemed like it was posing for me instead of flying off. We did see quite a few other Great Egrets but most were far off in the distance.

Great Egret, Tamron 150-600mm @600mm, Canon R, @f/11
Great Egret, Tamron 150-600mm @600mm, Canon R, @f/11

Great Egret Flying Into Tree

On our visit to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge we saw quite a few Great Egrets around the Refuge. This one was foraging in the grasses along the Wildlife Drive and flew into a group of trees along a turn on the Wildlife Drive. It was usually a great spot for photographing Night Herons.It stayed in the tree for quite a while just moving around on the branches. All images were taken with a Canon 1DmkIV with a 150-600mm Tamron lens @ 600mm.

Great Egret Nest With Chicks

A series of images of Great Egret chicks by & in the nest. The featured image was taken @ 500mm with a Tamron 150-600mm lens with a Canon R.

Great Egret Chicks in the nest. Taken with 150-600mm Tamron Lens @ 600mm, Canon R
Great Egret Chicks in the nest. Taken with 150-600mm Tamron Lens @ 500mm, Canon R
Great Egret Chicks in a different nest with adults. Taken with 150-600mm Tamron Lens @ 600mm, Canon R
Great Egret Chicks in the nest. Taken with 150-600mm Tamron Lens @ 500mm, Canon R

Great Egret Landing

A Great Egret landing in the early morning light at a small local lake. Image taken with 400mm DO lens with 1.4X teleconverter.

%d bloggers like this: