Yeah Yeah, just another Great Blue Heron

[matthewo]

With the pickup of cold weather down south I am starting to see more birds around. More GBH and white egrets, and hundreds if not thousands of cormorants. With all these new birds around, they will perch closer, and allow me to fill the frame and give me some different looks for perches. I like GBH and pine needles as they love to use the trees are perches and to build nests, and their neck feathers resemble the pine needles.

it was a very overcast day, but the clouds really helped defuse the light and give a nice even tone bringing a lot of color out of the pine trees and the bird without blowing out highlights, I also used a little bit of flash at times.

a little bit of flash from a sb24 at about 1/16th power most of the time. as the sb24 is no FP, I had to keep SS below 1/320, for the photos I used the flash for which were about half. a few also have 100 iso which is really nice.

I really enjoy working with one subject, when I can gain the subjects trust so that I can get close enough to fill the frame, and spend time to gather many photos from different angles and with different "looks"

 

[Derrel]

Very dramatic! I like several of these quite well. The location the bird is in in both the tree and the water look good.

 

[WesternGuy]

Mathew, nice images. I like the second last one as it is always nice to see a bit of "action".

WesternGuy

 

[NancyMoranG]

Those are exquisite !! How do you pick a favorite in a set like that?
I was going to post some GBH today, but I may let yours fade first!
beautiful.
Nancy

 

[baturn]

No such thing as "just" another GBH. And the first is easily my favorite of an outstanding set.

 

[JTPhotography]

All are nice. I can pick a favorite. Four is freakin' sweet!

 

[D-B-J]

Well done!!!

Jake

 

[sm4him]

The last one is freakin' hilarious, but I agree with baturn, my absolute favorite is the first.
They're all outstanding though. Nice stuff!

Herons never cease to amaze me. How they can land those long, gangly bodies with ALL that leg into a pine tree the way they do is nothing short of incredible.

 

[lambertpix]

Great set! Several really nice images in here. I love the reflected images.

 

[coastalconn]

Great series!

 

[Stevepwns]

Fantastic. That is all. :hail:

 

[Tailgunner]

Fantastic series!

The first one is by far my favorite, I really love how sharp the feathers are along with the pine needles. The rest are equally nice as well.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bo4key]

I like them all but really enjoy the second image. The detail in the feathers is wonderful and I really like the contrast against the monochromatic water.

 

[hopdaddy]

I love the lighting on all of these . Makes me also want to "Pull the trigger" on a D800 sooner than I was planning ! loving the details !

 

[matthewo]

thanks all for your comments.