What’s Up?
Not much. I swam 48 lengths (a bit more than 1/2-mile) in the morning, walked 2.5 miles on the golf course in the late afternoon, and watched NFL games on TIVO for the rest of the day. Go Blue! (The New York Giants football team had been hopeless and hapless for many years; they are now 7-2!)
Of yesterday’s featured images, I liked the young Reddish Egret in Wood Stork heaven best for the creativity involved. I have a zillion Wood Stork head portraits. Though I loved the detail and the soft light, different almost always wins out. For me, at least. Those who commented liked the stork head portrait best.
Today is Monday 14 November 2022. I have lots more work to do on the urgent and ongoing problems at NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association). This blog post took about two hours to prepare and makes two hundred thirty-two days in a row with a new one. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day.
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Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are — out of ignorance — using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often save you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.
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This image was created on 8 November 2022 at Circle Bar B Preserve in Lakeland, FL. While crouching slightly, I used the no-longer available Induro GIT 204 tripod/Levered-clamp FlexShooter supported-Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 594mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 2500: 1/500 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:48:43am on a cloudy morning. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be perfect. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Great Blue Heron subduing snake
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The Discovery
I was chatting with a photographer from Nalcrest, just across the lake from ILE. As I mentioned here often, the eyes of good photographers are always moving, always checking things out. I spotted a Great Blue Heron standing at the side of the path about 30 yards away. It had a struggling snake in its bill. We both approached. My problem was that I had the 1.4X TC mounted. Having to remove it and stow it cost me about thirty valuable seconds. I chose 1/500 sec. as my shutter speed, but as the heron was quite violently shaking its head as it was killing the snake, 1/500 sec. was not quite fast enough. Even worse, the bird was facing to its right, slightly away from me. Image #1, with the bird facing only slightly away, was the best of the lot.
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This image was created on 8 November 2022 at Circle Bar B Preserve in Lakeland, FL. While sitting on the path, I used the knee-pod technique while handholding the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 594mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 2500: 1/500 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:50:38am on a cloudy morning. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be a bit better than perfect. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #2: Great Blue Heron holding dead snake
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The Death of the Snake
After realizing the head angle problem, I moved to my left and almost instantly un-clamped the rig from the Levered-clamp FlexShooter . That is one of the many advantages of using any of the levered-clamp heads. That strategy worked out well, but the snake had been killed and was hanging straight down. With the background just a few feet from the subject, there were lots of distracting elements in all four images. I did just a bit of background clean-up on the brightest sticks and removed two dark brown areas from Images #1-3. But the backgrounds were still distracting.
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This image was created on 8 November 2022 at Circle Bar B Preserve in Lakeland, FL. Still seated on the path, I used the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 594mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 2500: 1/500 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:50:55am on a cloudy morning. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be a bit better than perfect. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #3: Great Blue Heron swallowing snake
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The Swallowing
It had taken several minutes for the GBH to begin swallowing the snake. As the bird was crouching, I was able to keep shooting horizontals.
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This image was created on 8 November 2022 at Circle Bar B Preserve in Lakeland, FL. Still seated on the path, I used the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 594mm) and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ) The exposure was determined using Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO 2500: 1/500 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) in Manual Mode. AWB at 7:51:26am on a cloudy morning. RawDigger showed the raw file brightness to be dead-solid perfect. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye Detection performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #4: Great Blue Heron almost done swallowing the snake
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Almost Done
As the heron was just about finished with its meal, it stood taller, perhaps in an effort to get the snake down. So, it was only natural to switch to shooting verticals.
You can see the ball of brown crud that was removed from the first three images in the lower left of this frame.
While it is always great to see a Great Blue Heron with a large prey item, the setting last Tuesday was a difficult one. Thus, it was pretty much impossible to create anything outstanding. Remembering that I went with the 200-600 for its light weight and size for my three plus-mile walk, I am guessing that I might have been able to create something dramatic with a cleaner background had I been working at 1200mm with the 600 f/4 GM on the tripod …
That said, if you have a favorite among today’s four featured images, please leave a comment and let us know why you made your choice.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
I can’t tell was that a green water snake?
Can you comment on how these birds seem to differentiate between venomous and and non-venomous prey? From appearance I would surmise that this poor, unfortunate character was non-venomous.
Yes Adam, that was an unfortunate Florida Green Watersnake (Nerodia floridana). Nicely done Artie. Looks like you had an exciting adventure!
Good guess? I couldn’t enlarge the image and given that I’m not a herpetologist took a stab at the most likely candidate.
I don’t think I can pick a favorite considering that from the beginning to end they all tell a story about survival. I like the sequence and feel you need all images to tell the story. #3 is my favorite because of the amount of snake still visible which provides a sense of scale with the Heron’s prey. Thanks for sharing the entire sequence.
Images #1, #2, #3, and #4 Great Blue Heron are great and cute!! The lighting is good and the focus is good and the coloring is good!
That GBH could take on Joey Chitwood!!