Great Blue Heron’s Bluegill Dinner

This image was shot at Crosswinds Marsh Nature Preserve in SE Michigan. I followed this Heron for about 45 minutes as it was hunting the marsh for food. He was a great subject and allowed me to capture numerous great shots but what I wanted was the fish catch. Having so much time to observe him, I was able to work out his movements when a fish was actually spotted and taken. He was pretty successful at fishing - catching a fish about 75% of the time. Great fun.

What technical feedback would you like if any? Any

What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn) This image was captured using a Canon EOS R camera and EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens: 170mm, ¹⁄₆₄₀ sec at f/7.1, ISO 640 with a polarizing filter. I used LR Classic for processing and some cropping to clean up the frame of the Heron.

If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.

Again you got very close. Well done. Heron and fish are nice and sharp. The lily pads are certainly part of the heron’s habitat but they do make for a busy photo. I wonder if you could have gotten a lower position and eliminated some of the pads from the bg. That is a nice big catch for the heron and it must have been fun tracking along.

Thanks David. Unfortunately I was laying on a boardwalk about 3 feet above the water and could not any lower. The fish were under the lillypads so there was really no way to eliminate them. ait is busy but ai do like the story it tells about the Heron. After watching him catch 3 fish I was really impressed by his skills!

Very nice detail and colors throughout. Nice action with the fish; wonder if some shadow detail could be brought out on the fish? The detail and color looks very good on the largest view and I could see a large crop to eliminate much of the background and some on the right- I really like the intimacy of the large view when cropped on my screen.

Thanks Allen - I’ll give it a try.