Heroic heron

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Heroic heron

September 20, 2016 by Mike Powell

Late Saturday afternoon I was exploring Cook Lake, a tiny urban fishing lake adjacent to a water park in Alexandria, Virginia. I accidently spooked a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) that flew to a fallen tree on the shore. The lighting was beautiful and the heron struck a pose that I can only describe as heroic.

I never get tired of photographing Great Blue Herons.

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon SX50, Cook Lake, Great Blue Heron, heron | 10 Comments

10 Responses

on September 20, 2016 at 4:53 am | Reply Robert

This image is so vibrant, well done Mike.
- on September 20, 2016 at 4:57 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Robert. I cranked up the contrast and saturation a bit and feared I might have gone too far. I really wanted to emphasize the contrast between the deep green tones of the leaves and the heron. The resulting image is a little stylized, but I am relatively happy with it.
on September 20, 2016 at 8:32 am | Reply mvschulze

Beautiful picture, Mike. M 🙂
- on September 21, 2016 at 5:50 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. Some folks are always looking to get shots of different subjects. I am usually content with shooting the same subjects and trying to get better shots.
on September 20, 2016 at 10:07 am | Reply Dan Antion

Magnificent bird!
- on September 21, 2016 at 5:49 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Dan.
on September 20, 2016 at 10:36 am | Reply krikitarts

Super portrait! The contrast doesn’t look overdone or at all unnatural to me; it looks wonderfully crisp.
- on September 21, 2016 at 5:48 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks for the feedback, Gary. If I continue to use this laptop for processing my image, I really feel like I should get an external monitor and calibrate it. At the I don’t feel super confident about that others will see my images as I see them on the laptop.
on September 21, 2016 at 1:29 pm | Reply Charlie@Seattle Trekker

Love the image you captured. I have always believed that good luck follows that see a great blue heron.
- on September 22, 2016 at 6:49 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Charlie. I see Great Blue Herons fairly often, so hopefully I will have lots of good luck.