Great Blue Herons Nesting...

[Joseph Przybyla]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D500
• 500.0 mm f/5.6
• ƒ/5.6
• 500mm
• 1/1600s
• ISO 720
• Sat, 28 November 2020 7:35 AM
• Copyright 2020 © Joseph J. Przybyla
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.0 (Windows)

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D500
• 500.0 mm f/5.6
• ƒ/5.6
• 500mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 250
• Sat, 28 November 2020 8:21 AM
• Copyright 2020 © Joseph J. Przybyla
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.0 (Windows)

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D500
• 500.0 mm f/5.6
• ƒ/5.6
• 500mm
• 1/2500s
• ISO 800
• Sat, 28 November 2020 7:53 AM
• Copyright 2020 © Joseph J. Przybyla
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.0 (Windows)

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D500
• 500.0 mm f/5.6
• ƒ/5.6
• 500mm
• 1/1600s
• ISO 640
• Sat, 28 November 2020 7:40 AM
• Copyright 2020 © Joseph J. Przybyla
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.0 (Windows)

I received a call from Artie on Wednesday giving me a heads up that a pair of Great Blue Herons were building a nest at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. I could not go on Wednesday or Thursday, Thanksgiving Day but I did go on Friday and Saturday mornings. Watching them from afar and photographing the happenings was quite wonderful. The position of the nest was in the open at the top of a Bald Cypress tree with a good angle to early morning light. The following images are from Saturday morning. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF, camera and lens supported by a Oben monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal Head
1/1600-1/2500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 250-900 Auto 1 WB
Post processed in Lightroom Classic. Photoshop CC 2021 and Neat Image for noise reduction when needed
Images cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Learn more about Lake Morton in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link The BAA Middle of Florida Site Guide

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Joe,

My apologies for failing to comment on your lovely post, this Forum has been so quiet for so long that I stopped looking. I did enjoy viewing your Blue Heron images, very much. And it is so wonderful that you managed to capture this behavioural aspect of the species! Love the interaction, your story has great continuity and composition works well, colours very pleasing. Subjects well exposed and sharp with good detail.
In the second frame the subjects lack a degree of vibrance and contrast, when compared to the other frames. I believe the challenge when processing a series of images is being consistent in terms of PP work, and unfortunately handling/enhancing each and one of them in the same way can be time taking. This is probably one of the reasons why members stopped contributing here.

I know I am very late here, but I just wish to thank you from the heart for sharing, I so appreciate it :cheers:

Warmest regards,

 

[Joseph Przybyla]

Dear Joe,

My apologies for failing to comment on your lovely post, this Forum has been so quiet for so long that I stopped looking. I did enjoy viewing your Blue Heron images, very much. And it is so wonderful that you managed to capture this behavioural aspect of the species! Love the interaction, your story has great continuity and composition works well, colours very pleasing. Subjects well exposed and sharp with good detail.
In the second frame the subjects lack a degree of vibrance and contrast, when compared to the other frames. I believe the challenge when processing a series of images is being consistent in terms of PP work, and unfortunately handling/enhancing each and one of them in the same way can be time taking. This is probably one of the reasons why members stopped contributing here.

I know I am very late here, but I just wish to thank you from the heart for sharing, I so appreciate it :cheers:

Warmest regards,

Thanks Gabriela, no need to apologize. I find you comments whether on my images or images by others spot on. I'll look at the images and try to correct the image you mention.

Stay healthy in this difficult time...

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Many thanks Joe for kind reply. I too find your comments valuable and always happy to hear from you.

Indeed things have been rather difficult here is SA - on top of the virus situation we are also dealing with some unrest in the form of protests and looting - so quite difficult to carry on with 'normal life'. Trying to stay healthy and focus on my business and whenever possible finding some refuge in wildlife and photography.

Hope you have a lovely week-end, and some photographic opportunities:w3

Kind regards,

 

[Alison McCoy]

Wow! These images are stunning! I love the variety in behaviors you captured in each frame. Just lovely and I so enjoyed looking. :S3: