Yellow-crowned Night Heron Juvenile-2
This post is devoted to inexperienced bird photographers and those of you with some experience under your belt or who aren't into photography are advised to skip it. First, juvenile Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons are difficult to distinguish. According to Sibley, the Yellow-crowned bill is dark and the legs long where the Black-crowned bill is more sharply pointed, extensively yellow along the bottom, and the edges of the wings have large white spots. Feel free to disagree but to my eye this guy is a Yellow-crown.
I was at Peaceful Waters Sanctuary, in Wellington, Florida. I had earlier missed a potential keeper Yellow-crowned shot, changing my settings to take a portrait with a lower ISO and lower shutter speed when the bird, who showed no signs of leaving, left. The lesson, if you're after a flight shot, keep your flight shot settings.
My arm can't hold up the lens indefinitely. I don't generally use a tripod and my lens is not a lightweight. It's therefore important to be able to tell when a bird is ready to leave. As indicated earlier, it's not science but the more time you spend observing the more capable you will become of predicting behavior. The bird in this photograph, was on a manmade structure toward the back of the Sanctuary. It was there for 30 minutes and looked very comfortable, so I moved on. After circling back, it was then preening (cleaning its feathers). That's a good indication that a take-off is not imminent but might be worth waiting for. It was already late morning, and the sun was strong. This meant that the only light that looked good to me was direct, meaning that the sun was behind me on a straight line to the bird. If I could see my shadow, it would be pointing at where I wanted the bird to be in order to make a pleasing image. That's what I do. The bird could have left in any direction, but only northward would put it in front of a pleasing background in the best light. If there was wind, it would generally take off into the wind. But this morning the wind was not a significant factor. I might not have waited for my chance if there were other subjects to photograph, but this was the only game in town and the more time I spent with it the more I felt invested in the endeavor. OK, another 30 minutes later I was questioning my logic as I continued to wipe the sweat from my brow. Then the bird turned and faced away from me. Game over. I looked at a sidelight angle but didn't care for the light or the background. Yes, I would have taken it, but I'll shoot anything. Then it turned back, stretched its wings, and pooped. Clear signs of an imminent departure. More preening. More sweat. Ten minutes later, another stretch, another poop and I could see it talking to the tower. That's what it looks like to me when it's looking more intently in its direction of departure. That's when I raised my camera and got ready. (Not he first time but the first time I felt that there was going to be some action.) I got lucky, it flew parallel to my position in the best light available at the time, in front a dark background that wasn't close to the subject. All important points to consider.
(Nyctanassa violacea)
Yellow-crowned Night Heron Juvenile-2
This post is devoted to inexperienced bird photographers and those of you with some experience under your belt or who aren't into photography are advised to skip it. First, juvenile Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons are difficult to distinguish. According to Sibley, the Yellow-crowned bill is dark and the legs long where the Black-crowned bill is more sharply pointed, extensively yellow along the bottom, and the edges of the wings have large white spots. Feel free to disagree but to my eye this guy is a Yellow-crown.
I was at Peaceful Waters Sanctuary, in Wellington, Florida. I had earlier missed a potential keeper Yellow-crowned shot, changing my settings to take a portrait with a lower ISO and lower shutter speed when the bird, who showed no signs of leaving, left. The lesson, if you're after a flight shot, keep your flight shot settings.
My arm can't hold up the lens indefinitely. I don't generally use a tripod and my lens is not a lightweight. It's therefore important to be able to tell when a bird is ready to leave. As indicated earlier, it's not science but the more time you spend observing the more capable you will become of predicting behavior. The bird in this photograph, was on a manmade structure toward the back of the Sanctuary. It was there for 30 minutes and looked very comfortable, so I moved on. After circling back, it was then preening (cleaning its feathers). That's a good indication that a take-off is not imminent but might be worth waiting for. It was already late morning, and the sun was strong. This meant that the only light that looked good to me was direct, meaning that the sun was behind me on a straight line to the bird. If I could see my shadow, it would be pointing at where I wanted the bird to be in order to make a pleasing image. That's what I do. The bird could have left in any direction, but only northward would put it in front of a pleasing background in the best light. If there was wind, it would generally take off into the wind. But this morning the wind was not a significant factor. I might not have waited for my chance if there were other subjects to photograph, but this was the only game in town and the more time I spent with it the more I felt invested in the endeavor. OK, another 30 minutes later I was questioning my logic as I continued to wipe the sweat from my brow. Then the bird turned and faced away from me. Game over. I looked at a sidelight angle but didn't care for the light or the background. Yes, I would have taken it, but I'll shoot anything. Then it turned back, stretched its wings, and pooped. Clear signs of an imminent departure. More preening. More sweat. Ten minutes later, another stretch, another poop and I could see it talking to the tower. That's what it looks like to me when it's looking more intently in its direction of departure. That's when I raised my camera and got ready. (Not he first time but the first time I felt that there was going to be some action.) I got lucky, it flew parallel to my position in the best light available at the time, in front a dark background that wasn't close to the subject. All important points to consider.
(Nyctanassa violacea)