Great Blue Heron
For all of my bird/wildlife photography I use a 400mm F5.6. I prefer it to the 100-400 because it’s sharper while being smaller and lighter with betterĀ auto focus. I aim to use a shutter speed of at least 1/800 to ensure as little motion blur as possible. Make sure your camera’s autofocus is set to continuous; for Canon this is ‘AI Servo’. If you can, try to shoot around sunset/sunrise for more interesting light.
Sweet. I love herons!
Amazing
Beautiful bird in flight. Poetry in motion!
Great for a great blue heron.
Just magnificent.
Great pics and what magnificient birds. I agree, light is key when photographing.
Great photos. I love watching these birds!
Stunning…and I appreciate the tips.
Amazing photos.
Simply stunning–as always!
Wow… that is quite amazing!
Wow – those are great shots! Thanks.
At a loss for words, to convey the beauty of your pictures!
Gorgeous shots! And nice ‘stache in the new pic, too.
Wonderful photos! Stunning and crisp!
Why isn’t it blue. did the late afternoon light warm up the coloring?
I absolutely love this pic. I love birds and the Great Blue is near and dear to my heart! I shared it on my blog. Beautiful!
Wonderful, Patrick!
Interesting light indeed!
What a beautiful creature and stunning photograph, as usual Patrick!
Wonderful shot.
Man, this is fantastic as always!
Got any egrets?
Beautiful!!
I love this–all of your photography, really.
Beautiful!!!
love the sharpness and colours
Wonderful angles, very sculptural especially the pre-flight. You caught that moment between impossibility and flight.
Incredible photos! Wow!
Your wild life photography is amazing.
Just so….amazing, crisp and beautiful !
Reblogged this on I am Jony Marco & who R U
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What art! Beautifully captured. Love the light and shadows. So elegant.
They sometimes land on the pond in our backyard. They are beautiful!
Superb detail!
Absolutely beautiful!
Good Evening: The middle one is brilliant. In my experience, birds will only rarely pose nicely for the camera, so congratulations on getting a great shot. Vonn Scott Bair
I’ve never seen a heron. These are quite stunning!
Brilliant photographs. Here on the pacific nw coast, we have a lot of Great Blue Herons. Some people still only just notice them, like a small boy and his grandfather the other day at the beach: “What’s that bird?” the boy asked. “I’m not sure,” the grandfather replied, and stared at it in awe as if it was the first time he had truly noticed it. Another time when I was kayaking on a lake, a Great Blue Heron flew out right in front of me, squawking loudly. You don’t realise how big they are until they’re right in front of you! Thank you for these photos
Amazing photos – beautiful!
Fantastic shots.
That’s fine looking bird.
Beautiful photos, the birds are magnificent, and I love the quality of the light!
Beautiful pictures Patrick!
Autofocus? On the top picture? Wow that’s impressive – it’s perfect!
nice shots….love those birds…
Wow!!! Really amazing!
Gorgeous. Starting to think Canada should be on my bucket list – your photos make it look so good
I absolutely love this ā„ wonderful animal and light
Beautiful, so graceful
Fantastic shots! Great light!
Reblogged this on bearspawprint and commented:
Blue Herons are the silly Crainy Crows in the Uncle Remus stories.
Stunning images! Great light.
AWESOME.
These are beautiful – the second particularly for the way the sunlight brings out the wing feathers.
Like the most exquisite wood sculptures. What fabulous pictures..thank you for sharing them.
Wonderful.
Reblogged this on Off Your Radar.
Wow! What a beautiful bird and great photographs.
Fantastic images! Wonderful that you were able to catch it in flight!
Really good lighting!
So sharp eye – you almost feel a connection
Oh wow. What an excellent bird.
wow, great!! so beautiful!
My question: spontaneous or planned? Certainly, part of photography is right place/right time. Other shots are planned, and involve the waiting and trial and error.
Lovely, just absolutely lovely.
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I love your photos. They’ve got this dynamic quality that I really like.
Although I’ve never seen a Blue Heron in my life, looking at these photos makes me feel like I saw a real one!
Cheers.
Beautiful!
Lotsa of them in Miami.
Beautiful shots of a most beautiful bird, and thanks for the photography tip!
One of my favorite birds. We have one that stops by during his migration.
awe-freaking some..!
I always like to return to your pages..peace,art, tranquillity,introspection and eye catching images.
Thanks
Beautiful shots. Love the light too.
Every muscle and feather captured in such beautiful detail. Excellent lighting.
These are wonderful photographs. I especially liked the first one – getting ready for take off. And I, too, am a GBH fan.
Holy nuts that first picture is so crisp I fell out of my seat in shock, innocent bystanders glanced over to my laptop and had similar reactions… Well done.
Such wonderful detail and clarity in your photos!
Nice shot! The sun highlights its graceful lines.
Wonderful moments!
I like the birds posture in the first image as you can just tell it is poised to do something.
Love how the light illuminates the feathers. You make me realize I need to take class on how to use my camera and it’s lenses. Since I’m using them so much in my Blog.
Reblogged this on marselusalbert.
I love the 3 different stages of flight… great pictures!
beautiful images
The blue heron is my favorite bird in the entire world. Seeing them up close, and then taking flight with their teradactyl-like wing spans is truly one of the most majestic visions. Thank you patrick. Are you selling these prints on your site? (nerdyromantic.com)
The photography tips are much appreciated too!
So beautiful – one of my favorite birds (which I miss, living here in Hawaii …).
You are truly talented. Absolutely stunning photographs!! Happy Thanksgiving!
Beautiful. I always loved the grace of a blue heron.
I love this bird and your photography is amazing.
Thanks for following my Blog! I’m glad you did so that I can now see these wonderful photographs! Herons are my favourite birds – they look prehistoric….
So every year I teach Of Mice and Men and every year my students have no idea what a Heron is. I show pictures from the internet, but these are the best especially with the taken off picture (which is the exact description from the book) thanks. You have made it easier on me and my students and beautiful at the same time
Loved how you followed the progress of the Heron’s flight! Great job!
Wow, so cool! Thanks for sharing…
Brilliant photos! I love them all and the second pic is my favourite.
great bird!!!! -great photo
thank you for the shooting tips! btw, how is the moustache doing???
kisses and hugs!!!!
Beautiful!
Impressive!
They’re very elegant birds. Beautifully done.
I had the pleasure of seeing a pair on our lake once. So beautiful we just stopped paddling in awe of their grace.
We have one of those at our cottage, I’ve never seen it so close up. Beautiful.
beautiful pictures!
My best friend lives in Vancouver, I will recommend her to visit your blog, so she can visit all the incredible places you go!!!
You are right about the light – it shows up the texture of the feathers. Beautiful bird.
Amazing…
Very nice captures! The first is my favorite. Robyn
Your photos are amazing!
Wonderfully pictures.
Check out my new blog.
Hairspray Jesus
http://charliezero1.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/hairspray-jesus/
Extraordinary! Wish you could also have recorded their sound when they take off–sounds prehistoric!
You are talented…wow, I love your pictures. I’d love to get tips from you to take my photography up a notch. Once I’m done with urgent things, we’ll talk. Thanks for following my blog!
Wow, beautiful Patrick. I LOVE the clarity in the color of feathers in the second shot and the texture. Oh, pure simplicity! Thank you for sharing : ) Is this a Blue Heron?
OK, now I see the title ; ) Hahaha
Nice.
Awesome detailing! Beautiful
A Great Blue Heron inhabits the river near my house and we bonded (we did!) when I took his portrait. I enjoyed your photographs. http://bmoreenergy.wordpress.com
I’m just awestruck with these pictures. You really have a lot of great stuff going on…
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Hi Patrick. What a wonderful trypich of pictures. I hope you don’t mind, but I have written some haiku using these as inspiration on my blog. I have given you full credit and linked the pictures back here. Please let me know if you object.
http://imnotdepressed.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/crane-haiku/
Absolutely magical
Ouch! That is a sharp photo. Awesome detail and light.
Stunning captures, truly stunning. You do nature much justice.
Incredible pictures! I was lucky to see a Great Blue Heron in the wild once and it was breathtaking. You’ve captured it well.
Wonderful as always……….
Amazingly beautiful.
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I have nominated you for a Liebster Award, because I love your work! If you care to participate in the hijinx, check out my latest post. Happy Holidays!
Such clarity…Brilliant!
I have nominated you for an award as “Very Inspiring Blogger” on my blog.
http://wp.me/p1yo4S-vw
Awesome photography!!!
Love the pictures of the heron, we’ve got one near our home… unfortunately it eats most of the ducklings in spring. A beautiful bird nonetheless. Agree on the light, it’s what I like about November – sun low in the sky, fantastic effects.
beautiful shots!
Such beautiful detail! You’ve got such an amazing eye.
Really amazing photos!
Stunning and inspirational, as always!!
Exquisite.
Please keep up the excellent work Patrick. Your work/talent/gift is inspiring, and a blessing to others…
Totally loving the first one. Will send me to bed with peaceful thoughts. Merci
nice photos!
Awesome capture!
Blog of Year Award 2012
http://sonocarina.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/blog-of-the-year-2012-award-thank-you-dear-kitty-some-blog/
I’ve nominated you for the Beautiful Blogger Award – I love your photography. You may already have this award, but I wanted to nominate you anyway
The rules are here:
http://hannahcykowski.com/2012/11/27/piglet-noticed-that-even-though-he-had-a-very-small-heart-it-could-hold-a-rather-large-amount-of-gratitude-a-a-milne/
Happy blogging
Absolutely amazing, thank you for sharing.
Gorgeous, and in motion no less. Where did you see it? I got a quick shot of one here in Calgary before it spread it’s wings and swooped away.
Gorgeous contrast of colors in that last picture!
Brilliant!
What makes these photos of the heron speak to me is the sharp clarity of the bird’s eye. Like a bright button. I wonder how long it took you to capture that sharpness.
These are sooooo gorgeous! I love looking at your photos.
Wow, i have seen this beautiful bird in Lake Havasu City but i need to learn how to capture its beauty like you did.
these pictures are great.!
Hello! I have nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award: http://sugarandspicebaking.com/2012/11/30/very-inspiring-blogger-award/
Wow! You have captured the majesty of this bird!
Incredible shots. Caused a feeling of something that I can’t put my finger on. Nice job. xoJulia
Gorgeous bird you really captured it, I would like to nominate you for a wordpress award! Go to this site if you would like to participate! http://manymuddyfootprints.wordpress.com/
Superb what a beautiful motion
amazing!
These birds are just magnificent. All of yours are great though. k.
Thanks for sharing your photography. It is stunning!
Amazing use of color contrast. I had one of these show up outside my patio one day. It was staring into the house. They are mysterious creatures.
Love all your shots! I sent your concert link to my son, who is a metal fan. Thanks for stopping by and liking my haiku.
I love the last part of the photo.
Wow, really cool pictures from all over the world. This is what we mean by ‘sharing cultures!’ We enjoyed to see the places you’ve visited and now we hope you share your experiences on our website.
Your story can be of great value for further development of our website. Soon we will come up with some subjects you hopefully will read, like, share and most important: reply. Our site is not build for one way communication, but as you may know: two way communication! So thanks again for your like and share this with everyone you know who enjoy to share cultures! Bye for now!
The heron and band shots are frickin sublime. In all the flotsam and jetsam on the internets, I’m glad I get to see the stuff your putting out there. Thanks.
What a fantastic set of photos. What lens do you use to capture this in such detail?
I have a lot of blue herons and egrets here I have yet to take pictures of. Thanks for the tips!
spectacular
You are an amazing. I’ll like to use my camera the way you do. This last picture is beautiful .
so stunning, Patrick
Every Spring the Great Blue Heron’s return to Northern Illinois. They are so majestic. Each time I see one fly across the sky, it catches my attention. It’s as if I am seeing this incredibly regal bird for the very first time. These birds are truly stunning and your photographs capture all of their beauty and grace. Thank you for sharing your talent:)