A year of Egrets!

If you would like to post, you'll need to register. Note that if you have a BCG store account, you'll need a new, separate account here (we keep the two sites separate for security purposes).

Otto

Otto

Well-known member
Member's gallery
After having reviewed some of Steve's videos and books I went back to the field. I followed an Egret for a few day and hung out for a while. I was able to get pretty close by crawling on my belly on the semi-wet ground ( bit of mud here and there) and not spook the bird two days in a row.

I think it was the same bird :) My aim was to photograph at eye level and get the best out of my Nikon 200-500 F5.6. Since I envisioned a better background separation as described by Steve I even used my Nikon 1.4xiii on the zoom. Focusing was atrocious but hey, needed to get it out of my system.

I was pleased with he background as compare to what I was getting standing up and looking down on the bird. Also it made for some very exciting crawling around which is really what I wanted to do. :)

The next thing is to watch my exposure. After I came back home, two days after the fact I realized that I had set my minimum ISO at 1250 or some ridiculous number like that. I purposely went out on a foggy day and it got better as time went on. But now my auto ISO is a respectable 64 at low end and 6400 at high end instead of the 1250-50000 I had. What a 'maroon'. That's one regret by I don't regret the Egrets and the time they gave to learn a valuable lesson.

One more thing is the processing which needs to improve. I recently started using Photoshop again after using Lightroom for such a long time I find I don't know where anything is anymore. In any case, lots to work on and keep on learning.

Happy crawling!

DAILYFLASH-45.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Member's gallery
So the technical data for this is: Nikon D850, focal length of 480mm (I accidentally rotated the zoom back) at F /10 with another mistake on the ISO of 1250. I think the low grain has to do with exposure closer to being correct (more to the right) and that makes it work.

I have now corrected the ISO settings so in the next couple of days I'm going hunting again.

Here is another image on the same series.

5B9285A2-8A19-4605-8129-926B3CFE4774.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Member's gallery
I'm sorry to report the sad news, but someone did not make it to 2021.

It took about 30 minutes of crawling to get close enough to where 500mm was becoming a little long. So I stayed put and lo and behold this maginificent Egret caught its breakfast.

The whole stalking thing has been very rewarding. I'm not sure if the Egret saw me or not or was just making me believe I was invisible. I got wet, muddy and sweaty. Will not forget this last shoot of the year. No more r-Egrets for now. Ah but there is one more just before the day is out. Can't help myself.

DAILYFLASH-118.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Member's gallery
Photobombed!

January 1, 2021. Same bird, almost the same spot but with friends. Hundreds of them.
DAILYFLASH-33.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Member's gallery
2021
Uptown funky walk, uptown...
Sonykon or Nikosony¡
Sony A6600 with Nikon 200-500 mm. 500mm F/5.6 ISO 160 1/2000 sec
53CD59BB-1121-4C22-9169-8E2453E88BFA.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

87DF1EC7-4855-4C5A-920C-3F5159238118.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Member's gallery
A very late afternoon just as the sun was going down. Still trying to make the most out of what I have. High ISO capture panning as the Egret did its last flight for the day. I almost feel that if reports are correct the PF lens would have captured it a bit sharper. The Egret crop is 1/9th of the total image area on D850.

Nikon D850, Nikon 200-500mm F5.6 ISO 20,000, 1/1000sec. Denoise AI
dailyflash-72.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top