A last-minute contribution to the blog. Around the holidays, I have hardly been out with the camera, the weather not being particularly inviting for a stint with the camera. I went out one grey morning to photograph swans at their take off to the foraging grounds. When I arrived, still in darkness, they were already in the air, a bit early in my experience. I crawled to the water’s edge to see what else I could photograph. Of course all the ducks were gone in a split-second. Only about a dozen sleeping Great Egrets (Ardea alba, Grote Zilverreiger) stayed at the scene. A few minutes later, they all awoke and one by one flew away to feed in the area individually.
I was fortunate a rather strong wind blew from behind me, forcing the egrets to take off in my direction. Because of the lack of light, I used a very long shutterspeed for a nice blur-effect in the wings. Out of the dozens of shots, only in this one did the egret keep its head relatively still, a requirement for the result to at least vaguely resemble an egret. No snow or ice, but still a nice high-key, snowy image to close the photographic year with.
I wish you all a very nice last day of 2011 and hope 2012 offers a lot of willing subjects and boatloads of wonderful light. See you next year.
Great Egret; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4L IS and 1.4x; 1/8s at F5.6 and ISO800; tripod.
2 Comments
Hoi Marijn,
Allereerst de beste wensen voor 2012 en veel fijne fotomomenten!
Ik vind het een prachtige high key opname. Van een gelukkig steeds vaker voorkomende vogelsoort!
Groeten,
Robert
Dank je Robert, ook voor jou alle goed.