Generally I prefer to have a natural background for wildlife shots, but when a Green Heron (Butorides virescens) that I was observing this past Friday at my local marsh took off, I ended up shooting it against the backdrop of the boardwalk. I really like the look of the resulting shot, which juxtaposes those natural and industrial elements in an unusual way.
If you enjoy photos with this type of contrast of the natural and the man-made, check out my posting from this past week of an “industrial” dragonfly.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Nice capture of contrasts, much like your dragonfly.
Thanks, Donna, It’s also an interesting contrast in approaches–I deliberately worked to create the look when I photographed the dragonfly, while the one with the heron was a happy surprise (though I did work on cropping and other factors in post-processing to create a similar look).
The heron stands out well against that background. Interesting that the boardwalks have sides on them. That can’t make photography any easier.
Fortunately here are only rails at a few locations. This was a ramp up to an elevated section of the boardwalk with an observation deck and two-story platform.
I like how his wings are in alignment with the boards. It’s like you guys were working on this together.
There are so many times when I wish I were a bird whisperer and could get them to move to more photogenic locations or to turn their heads toward me, but so far my communication skills aren’t working.
That’s a great shot, it’s such a beautiful heron and I like the contrast to the background.