Great Egret at the marsh

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Great Egret at the marsh

August 15, 2014 by Mike Powell

I’m always thrilled to see Great Egrets (Ardea alba), like this one that I photographed on Monday at Huntley Meadows Park. Unlike Great Blue Herons, which often are willing to tolerate my presence, egrets seem to fly away as soon as they detect my presence. When egrets are flying, I never fail to be impressed by their beauty and grace, looking like ballerinas in an aerial performance.

As has frequently been the case recently, I ended up photographing a bird with a macro lens, in this case it was my Tamron 180mm. The image with the standing egret was cropped a little, but it gives you an idea of my field of view. I had crept through some chest-high vegetation in order to get near the edge of the pond for these shots.

I suspected the egret would take off and I think I had the presence of mind to switch to Servo mode on my camera, which allowed me to get some in-flight shots that are pretty much in focus. I was shooting in burst mode and captured other images as well, but the egret’s head was hid in those shots.

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria, Ardea alba, birds in flight, Canon 50D, egret, Great Egret, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 180mm macro lens, VA | 15 Comments

15 Responses

on August 15, 2014 at 8:16 am | Reply Dan Antion

I am a sucker for reflections – great ob capturing him in flight!
- on August 15, 2014 at 8:19 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Dan. My favorite shot is the one with the reflection, but the egret was a little too small in the image to grab readers’ attention, so I lead with the more heavily cropped shot.
on August 15, 2014 at 10:34 am | Reply Jet Eliot

Really lovely photos, Mike. I especially like that last one with the wings outstretched in such a graceful posture, and then to see it again in the reflection…exquisite.
on August 15, 2014 at 1:35 pm | Reply dianaed2013

so graceful
on August 15, 2014 at 1:43 pm | Reply Charlie@Seattle Trekker

I love watching these birds fly, they are so amazing…Great photos.
on August 15, 2014 at 11:25 pm | Reply krikitarts

I must disagree, Mike. In your third shot, the reflection gives the whole an extra dimension that the tighter crops can’t share. To my eye, the egret is not at all too small in the frame. BTW, I’d love to see a monochrome rendition of this with a bit higher contrast.
- on August 16, 2014 at 9:28 am | Reply Steve Schwartzman
  
  I’m with the first two commenters and krikitarts in appreciating the reflected arc of the egret’s wings.
  - on August 16, 2014 at 8:32 pm Mike Powell
    
    Thanks, Steve. There seems to be an emerging consensus that the image with the reflection is the favorite.
- on August 16, 2014 at 8:29 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I will have to keep that one in mind, Gary, for conversion. I don’t have too much experience with converting to black and white, so I’ll need to set aside a bit of time to play around with settings.
  - on August 18, 2014 at 8:11 pm krikitarts
    
    As time allows, consider Nik software’s collection of post-processing programs. You get seven for the price of two. The B&W conversion one is amazing. Here’s a link: http://www.google.com/nikcollection/
on August 16, 2014 at 8:12 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Great shots of a beautiful bird. It would be easy to overexpose on this one, I would think.
- on August 16, 2014 at 8:30 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. The egret is almost totally white and normally I end up overexposing and blowing out all of the details. I’m not defaulting to underexposing when I shoot these birds.
on August 16, 2014 at 8:42 am | Reply Katrina W

Beautiful! I like the image with the reflection best too. 😊
- on August 17, 2014 at 9:07 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks for your kind words. That photo seems to be the popular choice.
on August 19, 2014 at 8:32 am | Reply mariekeates

Love the last photo with the reflection in the water