Flyaway heron

Out for a walk with the dog early one morning we were surprised by the appearance of a heron. Poised in the stream against some bushes he discreetly awaited his prey.

As we carefully approached, I managed to get a couple of shots of him reviewing the area. They looked reasonable pictures, but, um... reasonable.

The bird turned and, seeing me plus a dog, he decided that discretion was better earned elsewhere. He stretched those broad wings and rose quickly.

Moving hurriedly towards the stream, holding the dog’s lead in my left hand I lifted the mobile with my shaking right and snatched at a shot.

“Darn it! He’s gone and that shot was too hurried!”

First viewing confirmed my impression - "badly out of focus".

When I got home I “chimped”, and sure enough I had a couple of “reasonable” pictures plus a ragged moving picture of the heron as he took off.

As part of my cataloguing I downloaded the pictures into the relevant folder of my laptop and reviewed them all at full screen. The “hurried” shot I thought deserved a closer look. Perhaps there was something interesting in the patterns of the bushes?

Second viewing - and some judicious cropping - gave a wonderfully active frame.

The bird is moving swiftly out of shot, his wings lifted towards the Rule of Thirds / Golden Spot in the top right of the frame. The left side of the picture is dark as if the bushes themselves are emerging into The Light.

Hurrah!

Click here to return to "prev page".