Almost too close

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Almost too close

July 1, 2015 by Mike Powell

I was concentrating so intently on tracking this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in flight on Monday that I didn’t realize he was so close to me that I actually should have zoomed out a bit—the heron barely fit within the viewfinder.

Fill the frame with your subject? I can’t remember the last time that I was able to do so with a bird as the subject.

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto | 10 Comments

10 Responses

on July 1, 2015 at 7:24 am | Reply Dan Antion

Great capture Mike!
- on July 1, 2015 at 7:38 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks Dan.
on July 1, 2015 at 8:21 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Nice shot. I love watching these big birds fly,
on July 1, 2015 at 10:51 am | Reply Laura (PA Pict)

Superb capture and I like the fact it fills the frame.
- on July 1, 2015 at 11:24 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Laura. I would have loved to have just a bit more space to the right, but I certainly can’t complain about the image I was able to get.
on July 1, 2015 at 6:40 pm | Reply atodavis

Great Shot!
- on July 2, 2015 at 5:04 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks.
on July 2, 2015 at 9:21 am | Reply Lyle Krahn

It’s great to be closer rather than trying to find the speck in the viewfinder. I’ve been surprised many times with the distance factor.
on July 2, 2015 at 10:33 am | Reply vedaeddy

I am finding myself with this same “problem” more and more. Not necessarily with birds but with other stationary subjects. fill the frame has been drilled into me so much than now I sometimes don’t have the added boundary space I could use to crop to 8×10 for printing (my camera has 3:2 aspect ratio) or even to get a better compo once I look at my results on the computer. I keep reminding myself “step back a bit.”
- on July 2, 2015 at 12:41 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I too have to remember to leave a little “breathing room” so that I retain the kind of options for cropping that you mentioned.