Snowy-Egret-at-Vasona-Lake-Dec-2015-PPW
I love Egrets and I am lucky to have a reservoir just 10 minutes from my house where they congregate. It was an overcast day and the fall foliage was reflected ...
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I love Egrets and I am lucky to have a reservoir just 10 minutes from my house where they congregate. It was an overcast day and the fall foliage was reflected in the lake. D810 with 300 mm f-4E PF ED VR with Nikon 1.7 TC II for 500mm. f-6.7, 1-1000, ISO 800, VR on Manual Mode with auto ISO hand held. Processed with Capture NX-D and PSCS6 Extended using Picture Postcard Workflow.
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Dec, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I live in San Jose CA which five minutes from the town of Los Gatos where a park/reservoir called Vasona park is home to a number of wild birds including Canada geese, ducks, gulls, pigeons, blackbirds, herons and egrets.. The site is not without issues especially since our drought. Sometimes the levels of the lake are low and the birds tend to congregate either in the middle of the lake or on a small island at one end that makes it almost impossible to photograph them. But because there is generally lots of human traffic in the park the birds let you get a little closer if you are careful not to spook them. So you have to just walk around until you spot birds near the shore like this egret.Time
The park does not open before 8 AM and closes around 5 PM, so it precludes early morning shooting and late evening photos, so I try to go their either early in the morning or late afternoon. This was shot at a little after 3 PM on a slightly overcast day in December.Lighting
The reservoir lake is surrounded by trees and paved paths, that tend to reflect into the water. When it is overcast the lighting tends to be softerEquipment
I had recently purchased a Nikon 300 mm f/4 PF ED VR lens after selling my older 300 mm lens as I wanted a lighter smaller lens, and I was trying it out with TC's on my D810. The advantage of this lens is that it is much easier to handhold than the old lens as it is about 1.5 lbs. lighter and has VR. I shot this at 500 MM hand held using a 1.7 TC on the lens.Inspiration
I think egrets are beautiful birds and this particular situation found the bird close enough to shore that I could fill my viewfinder and had the added bonus of fall tree foliage reflecting in the lake and a very clear reflection with just enough ripple distortion to make it interesting. I believe the bold contrast between the color of the lake and the white bird makes this image special, while insuring that you don't blow out the whites and maintain detail in the feathers the challenge.Editing
I shoot RAW so all my images are post processed to bring out the best in my images. I have used Photoshop since the first C version, but stopped upgrading after CS6 Extended. I consider myself a self taught advanced user, with the majority of my advanced skills learned from Dan Margulis's excellent books. I used to also use Nikon's CNX2, but when I bought the D810, CNX2 no longer supported it, and ws no longer being upgraded by Nikon. So in this photo and all others I do, I have settled on the following workflow. I import my images into my computer using Nikon Transfer in VNXi. I do not use a catalogue system, preferring a standard OS folder, so I can access my images with any browser. I store multiple copies if the NEF on different drives. I then open the NEF in CNX-D, which is a very poor replacement for CNX2, but has a RAW processor that can read all camera setings and properly process images where ADL was applied, which no other RAW processor can do. I just do basic edit steps here, mostly changing the Picture Control to Flat, make exposure adjustments or ADL adjustments if used and then save the file as a 16 bit TIFF which bakes in all settings. I then open that file in Photoshop, bypassing ADL as it is not needed and using Dan Margulis's free Picture Postcard Photoshop panel, process the image using that workflow. Sometimes, though rarely I will also use NIK or On One software, but it is rarely needed after using PPW.In my camera bag
What I carry in my bag is dependent on what I intend to shoot. So in this case all I carried was the camera and lens and 3 TC;s, 1.4, 1.7 and 2.0. My more normal kit is my D810, 17-35 f/2.8, 16mm f/2.8 fisheye, 24-120 f/4.Feedback
I tend to shoot in manual mode with auto ISO engaged. This allows me to select the exact aperture and shutter speed I want, while allowing the ISO to float within a range I set to account for minor lighting conditions. In this situation, I am using fixed lenses not zooms, but a zoom would be easier to use, but the quality of the image might not be the same. You have to walk around to find your subjects or if you know where they congregate you could go to that spot and wait for them to show up. Start taking your images as you approach the bird, and don't walk directly toward it. Stop periodically until you rech the point where you want to be. Be prepared for the bird to fly away, as you might get a great Bird In Flight (BIF) image if your quick. I always use continuous auto focus but I have my camera set to use the back button AF On so that I can quickly set focus and then not press the button again holding that focus allowing me to recompose or allowing me to quickly reacquire focus if the bird suddenly flies.
