Tag Archives: egret

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Egret, Blue Hour Fog

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Egret, Blue Hour Fog
An egret hunting in blue hour fog

Egret, Blue Hour Fog. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An egret hunting in blue hour fog

For those who don’t know the term, “blue hour” is that twilight period when the light tends to become soft and blue, most likely because the primary illumination is from the blue sky itself, with no assistance from direct sunlight. You might not notice the depth of the blue color of the light if you don’t think about it carefully or look at a photograph. Our eyes adjust to the color and see things as being “normal,” but the camera records (more or less) “what is.” Most often when people refer to blue hour they are referencing that period of early twilight — just after the red sunset tones have faded, but before it becomes extremely dark. Of course, there are two “blue hours” every day – one before sunrise and one after sunset.

I usually start my bird photography before it becomes light, and I frequently have to wait a bit before starting to photograph. On this morning it was exceptionally murky — not only was it still dark, but the tule fog was very thick. Eventually I looked for subjects that I could photograph in this challenging light. You are never far away from an egret in places like this, and it wasn’t long before I came upon one that was hunting in the nearby vegetation. In many cases I might try to compensate for the blue tones and the darkness, but here I instead decided to “go with the blue” and produce a photograph that feels more like such mornings actually feel.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret Takes Flight

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Great Egret Takes Flight
A great egret takes flight above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

Great Egret Takes Flight. Great Central Valley, California. December 16, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret takes flight above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

Egrets are among the easiest birds to find — as long as you go where they are — and also among the most impressive. They are mostly individuals, rarely seen in groups, though occasionally they may collect in numbers of a few dozen in the winter. I typically find them around water, ranging from creeks and drainage canals through ponds and even the ocean shoreline. (There is one small pond not too far from where I live where I can almost always find a single egret in the area, and this has been the case for at least the last fifteen years.)

They don’t initially seem too distressed by human presence, especially if they are hunting and have found a target. However, they have clear boundaries and if you get too close they will suddenly take off, with little warning. They can be quite beautiful in flight, usually moving their wings slowly and even gliding, and they flare their wings impressively as they land. Unfortunately, most often they are flying away from my camera position — so it was special to be able to track this one as it flew past me from right to left.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret, Airborne

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Great Egret, Airborne
A great egret flies past, skimming above wetland plants

Great Egret, Airborne. Central Valley, California. January 16, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret flies past, skimming above wetland plants

In some ways these magnificent birds are very accessible, but in other they can be hard to photograph in interesting ways. They are common at the locations where I frequently photograph birds, and when I have decent cover (shooting from a vehicle or similar) I can frequently get relatively close to them without scaring them into flight. The key is a very slow and cautious approach and sensitivity to the body language of the bird — there are often hints when egrets think that I am getting too close. From just outside that boundary the egrets are large enough to fill the frame in good conditions, and I have lots of photographs of them on the ground feeding. Perhaps too many!

That’s the problem. An egret on the ground is interesting, but not often quite as interesting as an egret in the air. (Grounded egrets can be beautiful in the right light and with the right background and so forth.) In flight they are beautiful birds, typically using slow wing motion and often gliding, and they assume impressive poses when taking off and when landing. However, the lift off is sudden and the flight path typically takes the bird away from me. But sometimes I get lucky, as I did with this specimen. I was actually unaware of its presence and, in fact, it may have been unaware of mine. I had stopped to photograph something else when the bird suddenly flew into range from my left and passed in front of me as it made a gentle turn around my position. I’ve learned to react fairly quickly and to get the camera up and tracking, but in the best of circumstances it is still a challenge. The first couple of frames are almost humorously off-target, but then I found my subject and centered it in the frame as it passed by very closely.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret

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Great Egret
A great egret in flight against cloudy sky

Great Egret. Sacramento Valley, California. January 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret in flight against cloudy sky

This particular egret and I shared a few brief seconds of photography as the bird suddenly emerged, already in flight, from a brushy area along the edge of a pond at a Sacramento Valley wildlife refuge. In most ways, the egrets are at their most graceful while in flight, but this is when they are also the most difficult to photograph. Usually they take off and fly away from the photographer, and they are soon too far away to photograph. This one, however, flew parallel to my position and gave me a good side view. I only had a brief interval to raise my camera, find the egret in the viewfinder, and track it as I squeezed of a sequence of photographs.

I shared another one a few days ago. I interpreted that one in black and white, so I thought I’d work this one out in color. There was a great deal of softness in the original image — while parts of the wings are in focus, the large aperture and motion of the bird left other parts soft. So I decided to go with that soft effect and, in fact, amplify it and to then also go with a bit of a high key treatment, further emphasizing the brightness of the bird against a bright, cloudy sky.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.