A great egret perches on a wheel of an old pump station. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-7D. ISO 640. Evaluative metering +2/3: 1/1600 sec. at f/8

I’m a sucker for a photo with a perfect background, and that’s what sets this week’s photo apart for me. I usually try not to include man-made objects in my wildlife photography, but in this case, I thought the old rusty pump wheel juxtaposed against the smooth white feathers of the egret added to this photo. And there’s that background! Smooth green, with just enough abstract shapes to hint at lush vegetation. Yes, I know it’s another egret shot, but why not? After all, they are a pretty photogenic bird.

Because I wanted to make sure that both the egret’s face and its back were in sharp focus, I stopped down to f/8. I knew that the background was far enough away to still render out of focus. As I often do with stationary birds, I used only the center focus point on the egret’s eye, then recomposed while holding the shutter button half way. This ensured that if I didn’t stop down the aperture enough to include both the back and face in focus, at least it would be the eye that had the sharpest focus. If the eye isn’t in focus, the shot goes in the trash.

This photo was taken on a very overcast day, so I didn’t have to worry about the sun angle. The shadows would be soft and even, without bringing in too much contrast. Therefore I positioned myself according to the nicest background I could find. This had the egret facing away from me, so I had to wait until its head came into view, and was at least parallel to the sensor plane, or pointed slightly toward me. No one wants to see a photo of just an egret’s back. I made a noise, prompting the egret to swing its head and neck around to look back over its shoulder. That was it – I knew I had the shot!

A great egret pulls a fish out of a wetland slough for dinner

Watching birds in action can be much more interesting than just watching them look back at you. Mornings and evenings are the best times to catch birds moving about, most often looking for food.

This great egret had found a spot along the edge of a slough with plenty of fish. He seemed to be preoccupied with eating, allowing me to slowly sneak closer. I was surprised with the frequency at which he plucked fish out of the water – about one every 20 to 30 seconds.

He would stare at the surface of the water, his body leaning forward, and his neck coiled back ready to strike. At the opportune moment, his head would dunk into the water, almost every time coming up with a fish. Throwing his head up and back, he could fling the fish back into his throat, swallowing the fish whole. As he was swallowing, his neck and head feathers bristled, making his head appear almost twice its normal size.

Great egrets are one of my favorite species to watch eating because they tend to fish from the same spot, instead of moving around to look for food.

A great egret poses in soft evening light, preparing to fish for dinner

The great egret in the photo above was perched on a short fence, and eying the water below. He seemed to be looking for the best place to fish for dinner. I was directly in line with the angle of the sun, so as to reduce any side lighting on the egret. The foliage of a berm far behind him created a solid, even color.

I got several head poses that I liked, but since my subject was being so patient, I wanted to see if I could get a completely different background. The berm was not very high, and the evening sky above it was a nice light blue. I moved to the right and lowered my camera until I was close to the ground. This removed the berm from my background completely, and gave me the photo below with a background of sky.

By moving the camera down and to the right, I was able to get a background of blue sky

Because my lens was a long telephoto, I didn’t have to move far to change my background. This is great when my subject is wildlife, and they can decide to end the photo session at any moment. However, I use the same idea even when photographing friends with shorter lenses. Taking the time to look around for different background options can give you different variations on the same subject and can lead to new, interesting photos.

A great egret perches in early morning light, Redwood Shores, CA

This week’s photo is another of the great egrets that populate the area around my home. I took this photo at one of my favorite morning spots, where various egret species tend to congregate. This egret was in a great position to catch the early morning light. I set up my shot and waited until the first rays of the day turned his delicate white plumage a soft orange. Lucky, he seemed in no great hurry and posed for me for quite some time.

I was happy that this morning payed off. Being in the summer months, it is much more of a sacrifice to be up and photographing at dawn (which is currently at 5:45 AM). The weather, light, and yes, the birds must all be cooperating to allow successful images to be made.

A great egret calls out with an open beak

One of the largest, most majestic and ubiquitous birds around my house year round is the Great Egret. A short walk along the bay will usually yield at least one sighting, no matter the time of year. As captivating as this bird is because of its sheer size, it becomes even more interesting when observing its behavior. Whether fishing, preening, flying, or just poking around in the mud with its smaller Snowy Egret cousins, the Great Egret seems intent on whatever it is doing.

Both photos presented here are of the same egret on the same day. The shot below was taken just after a stiff wind had ruffled the bird’s feathers. To settle its feathers back in place, it began to shake its entire body back and forth like a wet dog. Captured mid-shake, it looks more like an overgrown chick than its usual stately self.

A great egret shakes its body, fluffing its feathers as it prepares to preen

Although I did not have my telephoto lens, using stalking techniques, I was able to get close enough with my wide angle to capture this egret and some habitat

The photo above was taken along 17-mile drive near Carmel, California. My wife and I were out for the day with nothing in mind – just being touristy. I had my SLR and a wide/mid range zoom with me – a decent walking around lens that could work for landscapes if needed. As we were driving along the coast, we saw this great egret very close to the road in beautiful light. Immediately I cursed myself for not bringing a longer lens, but I figured I’d try to see what I could do with what I had with me. We drove past the bird and I got out and slowly stalked back along the road toward it, trying to get as close as possible. Luckily the traffic was light this early in the morning. Obviously, I wouldn’t come away with a head portrait, but maybe I could get a decent habitat shot.

I slowly crept forward, hoping to intercept the bird if it kept moving in the same direction. Every few steps I’d stop and stand still, hoping the egret would not get spooked and fly off. Ultimately it payed off – the egret ended up walking very close to my position. I fired off a few shots of the bird with the ocean in the background. Through careful stalking technique, and by not giving up because I didn’t have the “perfect” equipment with me, I was able to capture one of my favorite shots of the trip.

This panorama of Mt. Lassen was composed of 26 separate shots using a long telephoto lens

Recently I was up at Lassen Volcanic National Park and I decided to take a walk around Summit Lake, hoping to get some shots of some forest birds. As a result, I had only my long telephoto with me (not a great walking around lens, as the lens alone weighs 3 pounds!) As I came around to the side of the lake furthest from Mt. Lassen, I found myself in almost the exact opposite situation as with the great egret shot above. I had a long telephoto, but I really needed a wide angle lens to capture the mountain, trees and lake.

At first I tried several compositions with my lens, but it was no good – only a small portion of the mountain was in frame at one time. Then an idea hit me – by combining many zoomed-in photos of the mountain and the surrounding scenery, I could combine them into a single panorama, mimicking the angle of view of a wide angle lens. I had shot panos before, but I was still too close in for my regular panning left to right method. However, if I created several rows of images, and I used a steady hand, it might work. I metered off the sky, set manual exposure and focus, and then spot metered several different areas of my scene to make sure I would stay within the dynamic range possible with the camera.

Starting at the upper left area of the scene I wanted to capture, I started taking photos (hand held), overlapping each by about 30%. Once I got to about the same distance from the mountain on the right that I started with on the left, I moved the composition back to the left, but slightly lower than my previous row of photos. The result was two rows of 13 photos each, creating a single panorama of 26 photos, and a 140 megapixel image. Thanks to Photoshop’s fantastic Photomerge technology, creating the final image was a snap (though my machine took a little time to crunch through the processing).

If I had planned for a panorama of the mountain from the offset, I would have used a much wider angle (and a tripod). However, I was quite happy with what could be done in a pinch with a little improvising.

A great egret searching for food is reflected in early morning light

Usually, capturing dynamic interesting light requires getting up very early in the morning. Luckily, this is also the time of day where birds tend to be very active. This week’s photo was taken near my house, in a slough extending from the San Francisco Bay. The calm water of the early morning was perfect for great reflections, and I was rewarded with lots of feeding and preening activity.