The St. Augustine, Florida birds workshop has just ended, and what a trip! The variety of shooting options was huge, given the relatively small area that the rookery occupies. Birds certainly maximize their use of space.
By special arrangement, photographers are able to enter the area an hour before the place opens to the public, and can stay after it closes until sunset. That provides greater opportunities for shooting and more freedom of movement with no crowds to deal with.
This Great Egret was sporting its bright green mating eye-patch and was showing off its huge wings. These are beautiful birds who strike lovely poses as they fly or land gently in the trees. I happened to catch this view of a forward wing sweep, which covered a portion of the eye and created a feeling of shyness.
This image is cropped from the original since I wanted all attention to be on the wings and the eye. When photographing birds, you need a quick response time to capture movement since things change radically from one moment to the next. Rapid Burst mode on the shutter, and Continuous Focus (also called AI Servo) for autofocus helps to capture unique moments.
Using the Highlights slider in Lightroom, my favorite software for refining images, helped to bring out the detail in the bright whites of the wings.
TECH SPECS
1/1250 sec. at f/5, ISO 1600. Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens set at 227mm on Canon 7D Mark II body. Handheld.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain." -- Douglas Coupland
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