Cattle Egret
Cattle Egret feeding amongst the cows in dawn sunlight.
Cattle Egret feeding amongst the cows in dawn sunlight.
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Oct, 2015Views
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Awards
Lucky 3 Award
Way To Go
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Peer Award
Superior Skill
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken not far from my home in a small farming community in South Africa. This Cattle Egret was finding it's food among the heard of cattle.Time
I love waking up in this beautiful part of the country really early on a Saturday morning (when dad can look after the kids) to find photo opportunities and birds! So just after sunrise, the Golden Hour.Lighting
I love working with natural light, and this was one of those ideal lighting situations! The warm colours of sunrise, and the crisp clear air of early morning. This photo was taken at 1/160sec shutter and f/5.6 aperture, with ISO 400. He wasn't standing in full sun, the ISO had to be raised a bit, and a bit of the warmth was brought in in post-processing.Equipment
I used the car window as stabiliser, with a Canon 600D and an old Sigma 170-500mm 5.6 (which was a lens for a film camera and was converted to work for digital!). No flash, totally natural lighting.Inspiration
I have been a birdwatcher and into photography since forever, and waking early to find anything worth photographing is my normal aim. I didn't go out to find the photo, it was more opportunistic, but it's amazing what scenes and/or subjects catch your eye and you come home with an amazing unexpected shot. This guy was standing among the cattle as they grazed, and as I watched and took photos of cow noses and eyes, the two in front of me parted, there he stood looking at me. With the beautiful green in the background at the widest aperture to get the blurred background, I made sure that the camera was stable to get the clearest shot I could.Editing
I didn't have to do much to this photo, just warmed up the white balance and cropped in a little.In my camera bag
I normally take along my Canon 600D with Canon EF 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM Lens, and my Canon 7DMkII with a Canon EF70-200mm 2.8 L IS USM lens, and a 2x converter (which is more for bird identification purposes than great photos). At the time this photo was taken I was also using a Sigma 170-500mm 5.6, which is what this photo was taken with. And then a pair of binoculars of course ;-)Feedback
Being an early bird one will find the lighting more beautiful together with the crisp morning air! It's also the time of day that birds are most active, they're hungry and it's not hot yet! It's just important to remember that your camera is held perfectly still (stabilized in some way, be it tripod, or as in this case, car window) OR use a higher shutter speed (they say, at least as fast as the length of your lens, ie 200mm lens, shutter speed over 1/200, pref double to be sure!). Getting at least a crisp clear eye is important, so you have to make sure that you get a focal point on the eye. So be it a bird, a cow or a person, you need to get a clear in-focus eye!
