Great Egret Preening in the Light
St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery again. Great Egret. I really like the translucence of the wing feathers.
Sony DSC N1 through the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL spotting scope. 1/640 @ ISO 64. Aperture determined by scope, in the F12 range. Programed Auto with -1 EV exposure compensation.
Minimal Lr processing. A touch of Recovery, added Clarity and Vibrance, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From St. Augustine FL.
And for the video fans, the same bird.
Wood Stork with Nesting Materials
One of the joys (and frustrations) of working an active rookery is the number of flight shots you have an opportunity to catch (and the number you miss). While nest building and chick rearing is going on, there are birds constantly in the air, coming and going. Wood Storks, especially, are known for bringing back big sticks and whole branches of trees complete with foliage. Every photographer who has visited a stork rookery during nesting is duty bound to try to catch a stork with a small tree in its beak.
Of course the Storks do not have much on the Great Egrets, which are equally amazing flying in with nesting material, and have the added element of elegance.
These kinds of shots push my H50 to its absolute limits. I use the Sports mode, for its predictive focus, and continuous shooting, at about 5 frames per second, but it is not the equal of what an DSLR can do. Still, in a half hour of attempting flight shots with the H50 I got a couple of keepers. Would they have been better with a DSLR. Probably. We work with what we have with us.
Sony DSC H50 at full tel (465mm equivalent). F7.1 @ 1/2000 @ ISO 160. Sports Mode. -1 EV exposure compensation.
Some Recovery in Lr, added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset.
From St. Augustine, FL.
Bonus…a Great Egret.
Great Egret
