I was thrilled this past Saturday when I caught sight of this Green Heron (Butorides virescens), because green herons have only recently returned to the area after spending their winter in warmer locations.
The lighting situation, however, was really problematic. There was beautiful dappled sunlight in the background, but the heron was mostly in heavy shade and his back was illuminated with harsh sunlight. I played around with a number of different settings and this was one of the better images. I still had to make some adjustments in post-processing to pull some of the details out of the shadows, which made the final image a bit grainy.
I really like the Green Heron’s pose, as he looks off into the distance. I don’t think that he was actively fishing, but was merely relaxing in the shade of the tree.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Mike I’ve tried to photograph birds, they can be a real challenge, so I understand this one real well. Actually I caught one photo I personally really like. I will do a short blog on it soon.
I ended up photographing birds a lot this past winter, when the insects and flowers disappeared. Here in Northern Virginia, we get lots of birds coming and going, so there is an almost endless variety of birds to attempt to capture with my camera.
Majestic!
Beautiful shot. I don’t see this bird much here-he’s a beauty.
What beautiful color. He doesn’t look very green, though.