BoyengaS3
Apr, 2016Views
959
Likes
Awards
Action Award
Chatter Award
Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 22
Legendary Award
Hero Award
Member Selection Award
Summer Selection
Top Choice
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Superior Skill
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 30 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
Top 30 rank
Mother_Nature
June 28, 2016
Fantastic Image-Great Clarity,Composition, textures,colours and POV.Wonderful Capture
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo on a family trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama. We stay near the end of the beach near Fort Morgan and it is secluded.Time
I took this picture in late afternoon. I had been taking pictures of dolphins earlier. They were showing up around 1:30 every day like clockwork, so I brought my telephoto lens to catch them. After the dolphin show, which lasted a couple of hours, I started following a heron that was leading me further down the beach.Lighting
The lighting conditions around 4:00 are not ideal on the beach and change rapidly. I prefer early morning shots. Afternoon shots are usually a little washed out. I was shooting multiple shots of this bird and checked the exposures along the way.Equipment
I was shooting with a Nikon D800 and a Nikon 2.8 70-200 zoom lens. Because of my expectations of shooting dolphins for a long period of time, I had a monopod attached to deal with the camera and lens weight on such a long shoot.Inspiration
I call Gulf Shores a target rich environment. I always pack my camera equipment when I'm on vacation and have the opportunity to catch birds, and dolphins. I also have the photographers mindset that I'm just caught up in a trance and don't keep track of time. The heron was leading me down the beach and I just followed him. Herons are a beautiful bird and I wanted to capture that. I was taking shots along the way and hoping for an interesting shot. I probably took over one hundred pictures of the same heron.Editing
I did some post-processing in Lightroom. I was fortunate with this shot because I did very little cropping. I did need to level out the horizon, darken the exposure and add a slight contrast. I try not to do too much to a photo, but I did add a little black to the shot and a dab of color.In my camera bag
I normally have my Nikon D800, my 2.8 70-200 lens, my 2.8 24-70 zoom along with memory cards a cleaning equipment.Feedback
I was able to capture this picture because I had the time and patience and the opportunity. I did not intend to capture a photo of a heron that day. I set my self up to get some dolphin photos and I accomplished that task. The heron invited me to follow along a capture some photos. You have to love nature and be willing to follow the beauty and have no concept of time.
