This photograph is from my "Avian Florida" Collection.
********** My brother and I were working a Florida wetland, looking for anything that might get our attention and warrant a photograph. We then heard an odd sounding, yet familiar call. Rick looked to his right and caught a glimpse of a green heron.
For those who do not know, the green heron is a stunning, yet a fairly small heron. In the wild, they are often very suspicious of humans. This one, however, seemed preoccupied with something else. A rival male!
Rick quickly and quietly jumped into action as did I. I was armed with my Canon 7D Mark II with a 600mm L, and Rick had his trusty Canon 1Ds III and a Sigma 150-600. What happened next was odd. The birds used us as a buffer between each other! This allowed us each to get glass on a seperate bird, and actually put the birds in a slightly more comfortable posture.
Now, everyone could relax. I began to fire off shot after shot of the perched heron. I kept whispering to myself, "Oh man, this is great, this is great!" I love the image above as not only a high key style portrait, but as a behavior shot. Look at how his feathers are raised. He is still irritated with his rival heron. What a great feeling to capture such a beautiful bird!
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Great shot Matt and enjoyed the narrative along with the picture. I am new to your site and also to wildlife photography. Were you able to get the bird with no background by after processing or by lens settings? Thanks Stan
ReplyDeleteHi, Stan, thanks for your kind words and welcome. This shot was done all in camera. The technique is to expose for the subject and let the highlights go where they may. You can also obtain a similar result by exposing for the background and opening up about 3 stops (have to play with that in camera).
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