Every year three kinds of Egrets and Black-crowned Night Herons nest in two large eucalyptus trees in a suburban neighborhood in town. It’s an area of older low-rent condos with a lot of lawn area along a street, so it’s possible to park on the street and walk around on the lawns to photograph them. The nests are high and mostly hidden and the trees are not at all attractive, but the chances for flight shots are very good, especially when they are bringing in nesting material. The best light is rare – morning fog that clears early enough that the sun is still low. Yesterday was the first decent chance this year. It’s a bit early for the main crowd, which numbers 2-3 hundred, but a few were there and busy carrying nesting material.
I was eager to try out the new R5 with the 100-500 lens, and took advantage of the 20 fps with full electronic shutter, to get more wing positions and more chances for the sharpest AF, as the beating wings (I think) tend to make AF jittery. I filled the 128 GB cards, 2100 frames, in 2 hours. Good thing I didn’t have a spare because my arms were falling off from hand-holding and my legs were concrete. It took the rest of the day to import them into LR and do the first round of deletions.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments always welcome!
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon R5, 100-500 at 400, f/7.1, ISO 800, 1/3200 sec. Dark tones lightened in LR, NR is PS and very minor BG cloning. Cropped to 75% of the full frame.
You caught a great pose in this image, Diane. The detail looks good and that big branch it’s hauling around is really cool. I’m not sure, but my memory of this species in breeding plumage would say you could use a touch more saturation on the colored areas (beak, eye and the green patches). A fine image and I like the hint of the tree on the right.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank! There were several individuals with different degrees of coloration in the lores. Another one looked almost artificially green. I could squeak this one up a bit, though. The beak does look a bit pale.
Wonderful capture, Diane. The limb is as long as the Egret! I had no idea their nest would be so large. I like that you have included a bit of the eucalyptus tree in the frame, adds a hint of its environment. Lucky you to have all of this activity close by. Nicely done.
That soft light worked perfectly here. Love the branch and the wing position. IQ looks good. I like the idea of including something green to break up the sky, but I’m not sure about the branch here. It’s feels like a bit too much for my tastes.
Thanks guys! @linda_mellor, I wish I could see what happens when they get to the nest with branches like this. (The nests are high in the tree, way out of sight.) I got one last year with a 3-D branch that was a big as the bird. @Lyle_Gruby, my main reason for including the branch is that it was in the capture – not a stunning reason! I could crop from the right and remove it. I’ll admit that an OOF eucalyptus branch is not what most people would picture for a nesting habitat.
I tried a bit of a blur on it, but that’s probably only a slight mitigation.
I also find the pose quite pleasing. This does show fairly typical behavior, and flight action. I think the second image brings out a little more of the green on the face. Sounds as if you have some superb shooting opportunities in your neighborhood.
@Diane_Miller - still am partial to leaving the eucalyptus tree in, having lived in San Francisco, the eucalyptus tree bring back many memories. So feeling fairly biased on this one. Great capture.
This is excellent work, @Diane_Miller ! The pose is wonderful and the branches on right add so much context to what otherwise would have been ‘just a bird’ in mid-air. Love it at you definitely got the right conditions for this shot ! Well done, Hans
It is stick time for egrets and herons. Getting an egret from below works very well as lots of light pass through the flight feathers. I like the first one better with greater definition in the leaves. Well done…Jim
Hi Diane, I too like this shot for all the previous reasons . I also wonder what a crop on the right might do without the leaves and branch. Looks great as is, though.
Thank you for the excellent description of your shooting preparations. I’m sure it can break the stick if it has to. I’d also leave in the eucalyptus branch as it adds to the context of nesting. Super shot.
