photoartflightGreat Egret – Breeding Plumage
Posted on April 29, 2019
This Great Egret was at the very top of a tree that was loaded below with other nests of various types of birds. It really stood out against the bright blue sky. Photographed @ 600mm with a Tamron 150-600mm lens.
Same tree, off to one side
Great Egrets Roosting In Trees
Posted on September 2, 2018
Along the Wildlife Drive in the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, there is a group of trees at one of the bends in the drive that seems to attract a variety of Herons along with Egrets. You can usually see Black-Crowned Night-Herons, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and occasionally Yellow-crowned Night-Herons & Cattle Egrets. This series are with the Great Egrets.
Great Egrets Through The Bushes
Posted on February 2, 2018
I was photographing some small shorebirds when I noticed this group of Great Egrets foraging along the shoreline, coming towards me. I changed my position to get more working distance to photograph them with the lens I had on. Backing up even more as they got closer to get them all in and I shot a series of images through an opening in the bushes. This is the one I liked the best because they were lined up fairly well in the opening in the bushes. And I liked the upraised wings of the Egret in the foreground. I was using a 400mm with a 1.4x teleconverter @ f/8 which softened the bushes I was shooting through. It actually worked out better than I thought.
Great Egret Wing Positions
Posted on January 6, 2018
While I was photographing at Ding Darling NWR in Sanibel, FL, this Great Egret flew by where I was photographing White Pelicans. It flew in front of me from left to right. As I was adjusting my files I thought it would make an interesting image showing the different wing positions as it flew by. I did not have the camera set at a high frame rate, but I thought it was still interesting.
In Camera Raw I selected the whole series, made my adjustments and opened them in Photoshop, each on its own layer in the original file. I selected the blue background and inversed the selection to select the Egret on each one. I made a new file that would fit them all in horizontally. I selected a blue sky color from the first of the series and a blue sky color from the last of the series and graduated the color from left to right for the background sky. Then added a slight bit of noise into the sky.
Now that I had my sky background, I went back to each Egret image and selected the layer of each Egret and put that Egret image in a new layer, in sequence to show the wing position sequences. If I was at a higher frame rate I would have gotten more wing positions, but I still had fun putting it together.
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.
Flaps Down For Landing
Posted on July 7, 2017
This Great Egret flew across the lake heading for the pile of sticks in the water. As it was landing it’s wings flared out and reminded me of private aviation flying, flaps down. I liked the wing position and angle of the landing Egret.
Great Egret – 5 Shot Egret Panorama
Posted on May 29, 2017
When I am photographing at an area in the car, I usually only use one main lens. At Brigantine I am usually using a 400mm f/4 D.O. Lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. Mainly because there is not time to switch because the subject could be gone and mostly subjects are far away. I have other equipment in the back of the van, usually with a wide angle zoom or a m43 camera with a 14mm – 140mm lens. But on the Wildlife Drive, when I come upon a subject, I do not have time to switch equipment before the subject is gone, so I make do with what I have in my hands. Many times I just shoot a multi-shot series and combine them in Photoshop. This mostly works well, plus I get a much larger file. Doing so many over the years, it seems 2nd nature now. Plus the newer CC PhotoShops work extremely well for assembling these multishot panoramas or stacked images.
Great Egret Gliding In
Posted on May 17, 2017
A Great Egret gliding by at a local Wildlife Preserve, early in the morning.
Great Egret Flying Out In The Sunrise
Posted on December 17, 2016
Early morning photo of a Great Egret flying out against a colorful sky. This was photographed earlier, but with work l am trying to catch up on my personal projects.
Great Egret Gliding Along The Water
Posted on December 15, 2016
This is from an earlier outing but never got around to working on the files. I was going through an external drive and found these files I forgot about. I chose one to post here.
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