Where I shoot these is a beautiful setting of old cypress stands covered in Spanish moss which makes for some great bokeh. The difficulty is getting close enough to a bird that is generally not much bigger than two hand lengths from beak to tail and one top to bottom sans the legs...and then when he goes into full stretch, the length is four hands long..still not a big bird by any means. A second difficulty is that we shoot from a slowly moving boat and while some "guides" will try to get as close as they can, we tend to give a fair margin of non disturbance. We'll get somewhat close but only as we drift by, engine off. Once by, we go on to another bird, deer or whatever else comes into view. We like to stay observant visitors and not unwanted voyeurs.
What's lovely about the Green Heron (and really almost all the Herons and Egrets) is the speed in which they make their strike. There are times when I shoot at 1/3200 and still get a bit of a blur. They are also beautiful in that every time you make a shot, it is different from the one you made a minute, a week or a year earlier.
Thanks so much for the kudos. This one now hangs in my office.
