Green Heron portrait—light and shadows

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Green Heron portrait—light and shadows

August 1, 2015 by Mike Powell

The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) was mostly in the shadows yesterday as I observed him at the edge of a small stream. When he bent down, his face was briefly illuminated and I managed to capture this action portrait with a fascinating interplay of light and darkness.

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Butorides virescens, Canon 50D, green heron, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, Wickford Park | 14 Comments

14 Responses

on August 1, 2015 at 5:49 am | Reply Mjollnir MacAlba

Wonderful photo Mike – looks fantastic full screen.
- on August 1, 2015 at 11:12 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. When I saw it on the back of my camera, I thought it was pretty good so I barely touched it in post-processing.
on August 1, 2015 at 8:08 am | Reply joeschelling

Wow! If Rembrandt had a camera…
- on August 1, 2015 at 11:14 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Joe. It’s funny that you would mention Rembrandt, because that’s exactly what I thought when I first saw the image on the back of the screen. Mixed lighting like that is a challenge, but it worked this time, thanks in part to the fact that I was using spot metering.
on August 1, 2015 at 9:39 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

I love shots with dark backgrounds and this one is excellent. Hard to get though, I’m sure.
- on August 1, 2015 at 11:15 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Allen. I got lucky, plus I happened to be using spot metering which may have darkened the background a bit in getting the correct exposure for the little heron.
on August 1, 2015 at 6:35 pm | Reply svtakeiteasy

Excellent shot, Mike, although this heron seems to have a bad hair day! 🙂
on August 1, 2015 at 10:00 pm | Reply mvschulze

Phenominal capture and image, especially viewed full size on the computer screen. Nice. M 🙂
- on August 2, 2015 at 5:05 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I took a series of shots and most of the ones before this one had the heron almost totally in the shadows. Unwittingly the heron cooperated to make this such a cool shot when he bent forward, bringing his head into the light.
on August 2, 2015 at 9:37 am | Reply Ed

AWESOME!
on August 3, 2015 at 4:46 am | Reply Lucy

What an amazing creature. I love to see them fly! Great job, Mike!
- on August 3, 2015 at 5:20 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Lucy. This is definitely one of my favorite shots that I have taken.
on August 4, 2015 at 11:05 pm | Reply Birder's Journey

I’m really partial to green herons, and this wonderfully illuminated pose is just right!!
- on August 5, 2015 at 4:34 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. The light and the tilted head pose makes this shot stand out (though I love almost any shot of a green heron).