Egret Floating in Air

Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Venice Rookery, Venice, FL, on 7 Mar 2003

A v-shaped opening existed in the top tree line at the Rookery. As Egrets and Herons approached that area they seemed to float in air. The day was alternatively sunny and cloudy. I envisioned a monochromatic image of a hovering Egret carrying building materials. I shot more during cloudy periods to better secure the desired effect. Though I have images of other birds with other moods, this one seemed to best fill the bill.

I’ve grown fond of looking at a location and preconceiving images. Although I fail more often than I succeed, when success does occur, it is sweeter than getting a good random shot.

Long, skinny, dark objects against a light background tend to display aliasing artifacts even under the best of circumstances. The bird’s legs and the stick fall into this category. To minimize the effect, I used the Power Retouche Anti-alias utility. The effects are subtle but salutary.

This image was posted quite a while ago on another site. At that time I put the narrow frame on the inside of the canvas as I usually do. That left less space than I wanted between the top of the stick and the frame. This time I placed the frame on the outside of the original canvas.

Thanks for looking at one of my favorite images. Comments, critiques, and reposts are welcome.

Canon 1D, 400DO IS, 1.4x II TC
F8, 1/1250, ISO 250, Flash off
Manual mode, Incident metering @ -1
Image/Adjustment, Toolbox, USM, Crop zero
Power Retouche Anti-alias
BreezeBrowser RAW conversion