Great egret

PNWPhotos.com a friendly and growing community of photographers with an interest in the Pacific Northwest region. We feature a Photography Discussion Forum and Pacific Northwest Photo Gallery. It's a fun and friendly place to talk with other photographers, ask questions, share you knowledge, view and post photos and more!


squirl033

squirl033

Super Moderator
Staff member
first of, a shout-out to Jerome... thanks for the tip on the egret, my friend! went to the marina this afternoon, no egret, but i hung around for an hour or so, and it showed up. i spent the next hour or so photographing it as a great blue chased it around the log boom. in between territorial spats, the egret did its fair share of fishing, and caught at least a dozen little fish between the logs. here are some of the shots i got...

IMG_6564%20crop%20sm_zpswka01jfw.jpg


IMG_6737%20crop%20sm_zpsadupazte.jpg


IMG_6627%20crop%20sm_zpswf51bgx6.jpg


IMG_6598%20crop%20sm_zpssek2u07o.jpg


IMG_6891%20crop%20sm_zpspe1a5rop.jpg
 
not trying to make you look bad at all, Jerome! i'd just never seen an egret around here, much less gotten a photo of one, so i wanted to give it a shot... or, in this case, 327 shots... LOL!
 


I know that I was just joking we don't see all white birds around here so I don't know how to bring out the nice white feather detail
 
I know that Rocky I was just joking we don't see all white birds around here so I don't know how to bring out the nice white feather detail
 
tripod said:
I know that I was just joking we don't see all white birds around here so I don't know how to bring out the nice white feather detail
Click to expand...

one of my tricks is to shoot a stop or so underexposed in situations like this... it usually makes the background darker (like the water in these shots), but it really helps keep the whites from blowing out. most of the shots i took today were between 2/3 and 1-1/3 stops under.
 
Great shots. It isn't easy to keep from blowing out the white feathers on a sunny day like Sunday.

My son and I saw one about 12:30pm today (Sunday, 10-4) at the Big Ditch, a DFW site NW of Stanwood. Same bird??? We only got some distant shots, which I will post up later along with other photos of our trip. Like Rocky, I have never seen one this far north. There have recently been reports on Tweeters of great egrets in the area.
 
Last edited:
Bill Anderson said:
Great shots. It isn't easy to keep from blowing out the white feathers on a sunny day like Sunday.

My son and I saw one about 12:30pm today (Sunday, 10-4) at the Big Ditch, a DFW site NW of Stanwood. Same bird??? We only got some distant shots, which I will post up later along with other photos of our trip. Like Rocky, I have never seen one this far north. There have recently been reports on Tweeters of great egrets in the area.
Click to expand...

Big Ditch? never been there... this egret just sort of appeared a little after 4 PM... finally got tired of being rousted by the GBH and left around 5:30. it flew off like it was heading upriver...
 
squirl033 said:
Big Ditch? never been there... this egret just sort of appeared a little after 4 PM... finally got tired of being rousted by the GBH and left around 5:30. it flew off like it was heading upriver...
Click to expand...

Check my northern bird trip thread that I just posted up.
 


one of my tricks is to shoot a stop or so underexposed in situations like this... it usually makes the background darker (like the water in these shots), but it really helps keep the whites from blowing out. most of the shots i took today were between 2/3 and 1-1/3 stops under.
Click to expand...

The last one is my favorite as well, Rocky. Your technique worked well on these photos. I'm surprised you guys don't see them up there more often. I've seen them all over the place here in NW Oregon. Looking at the ebird map, northern Oregon probably has 3 to 4 times more sightings; however, there are plenty of sightings in your area.

I'd say you had a good day, I very seldom see these egrets so close-up. Again, some great shots here!



Chad
 
photographmemories said:
The last one is my favorite as well, Rocky. Your technique worked well on these photos. I'm surprised you guys don't see them up there more often. I've seen them all over the place here in NW Oregon. Looking at the ebird map, northern Oregon probably has 3 to 4 times more sightings; however, there are plenty of sightings in your area.

I'd say you had a good day, I very seldom see these egrets so close-up. Again, some great shots here!
Chad
Click to expand...

The farthest north I have ever seen a great egret was in the vicinity of Lake Vancouver. There have been several reports on Tweeters of recent sightings in Snohomish County. I don't know if we are all spotting/photographing different birds or the same bird. I posted up links to Rocky's, Jerome's, and my photos on Tweeters in the hope of eliciting some comments on the recent sightings.

Photographing bald eagles on a sunny PNW winter day is a good opportunity to practice using negative exposure compensation to prevent blowing out their white heads.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.


Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top