This weekend, our lake had a thin layer of ice, which seemed to have discouraged the wildlife we would have expected to see. My wife, who is Canadian, used her kayak like an ice-breaker clearing the North West Passage for shipping, and opened up some navigable water. After a long time in which we saw nothing, a heron flew in for a photo-op. It let me approach within a few yards, close enough to see my boat’s reflection in its eye. Then it took off, did a lap of the lake, and disappeared, taking with it my thanks!
D500 / Sigma 100-300mm / Group auto-focus
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Wonderful chance well used! Excellent tracking to hold focus against the BG.
A nice series, Michael. I really like the pose in the first image, but I think the bright side of the perch is a bit of an eye magnet-you might dim it down a bit and maybe crop some off the bottom to minimize it. I also think a bit of blur on the background tree would make that tangle of branches less of a distraction. The other images look good as well, though I think I’m seeing some sharpening fringes in some of them.
Nice images. I particularly like the first one. It is nice and sharp and a "Bittern ’ like pose. I like Dennis’s idea of toning down the rock perch some. too bad the heron took off. Well done.
I think that improved it a lot, Michael. The perch is much less of an eye magnet.
