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Author Topic: Egrets in flight  (Read 3634 times)

wmchauncey

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Egrets in flight
« on: July 31, 2013, 08:33:57 pm »

Sometimes ya just get lucky...what with them all in focus...five images then photomerged.

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DougJ

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2013, 10:46:34 pm »

This is not a criticism,  just my curiosity: why is the lead bird's neck not extended?

Ciao,

Doug
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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2013, 08:00:28 am »

My bad, I should have been more clear...this is one bird as it traverses the pond.  I merely merged the individual images into one long one.  That day I got eleven individual shots from the same flight during that journey across the pond.
As a point of reference, the following is a 800 x800 px crop @ 300ppi of one of the images.

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RSL

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2013, 11:43:29 am »

Suspicions confirmed! I've seen a lot of egrets in flight and I have more than a hundred pictures of egrets in flight, but I've never seen egrets flying in formation.
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wolfnowl

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2013, 06:53:09 pm »

This is not a criticism,  just my curiosity: why is the lead bird's neck not extended?

Ciao,

Doug


Hi Doug:

The OP can confirm this, but it looks like the bird is just lifting off from a tree branch and coming out of the initial drop in order to gain some altitude before colliding with whatever lies ahead.  As such s/he will be starting to shift the body a bit, and using those powerful wingbeats for lift.  Geese tend to fly with their necks outstretched whereas herons/egrets fly with their necks in an 'S' shape.

Mike.
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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2013, 08:08:49 pm »

Not my best combining technique, but this is what they looked like crossing the pond after takeoff from a branch.



Buffer filled up after 11 images.
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DougJ

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #6 on: August 05, 2013, 02:53:45 am »

Appreciate your comment, Mike.  I'm no Egret expert and simply had never seen one with the neck tucked in as it appears in the OP's post of the capture sequence.

For what it's worth I offer my own version of an Egret on take off at full throttle :).

Ciao,

Doug

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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2013, 01:53:18 am »

As a follow-up, I got these tonight

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RSL

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2013, 11:27:45 am »

Very nice!
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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2013, 11:49:35 am »

Thanks Russ...it's really easy to blow out the whites when shooting into a dark background.     ;)
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RSL

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2013, 12:22:10 pm »

How well I know, and you're controlling the problem beautifully. This guy was close. I just checked Lightroom and it tells me I have 171 pictures of egrets (not all in flight).
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #11 on: August 07, 2013, 02:10:24 pm »

As a follow-up, I got these tonight

That's a beautiful shot! Well done indeed.

Jeremy
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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #12 on: August 07, 2013, 11:26:40 pm »

Thanks for the accolades guys.  I got my start with Great Blue Herons in flight...got a ton of those as well.
Because of their coloring and their normal foliage background, I've never been able to develop a method of PP to accentuate the bird from the background.




That represents but one, of many, failed attempts.  At 300 ppi, that image is over 4 1/2 feet long.  Suggestions would be appreciated on the accentuation aspect.


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RSL

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2013, 07:47:41 am »

One solution is to catch him against the water.
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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #14 on: August 11, 2013, 10:42:55 am »

As a follow up to this post, and it's happened before, but I didn't equate the events.
I take a lot of Egret images waiting for them to fly...I want the BIF series to photo-merge. Anyway, I'm sitting there waiting and clicking...getting this



He then has a moment of indiscretion, he takes a dump and I start to laugh, losing him in the viewfinder and my series shot is gone.
Moral of story...if they take a dump, they are gonna take off.
First time it happened, I didn't see it until I downloaded the image...kind of embarrassing.

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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #15 on: August 11, 2013, 02:08:53 pm »

He then has a moment of indiscretion, he takes a dump and I start to laugh, losing him in the viewfinder and my series shot is gone.

You reminded me of this one of mine. Can we start a "taking a dump" thread?

Perhaps not.

Jeremy
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RSL

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #16 on: August 11, 2013, 05:16:58 pm »

Thank you, no, Jeremy.
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Damon Lynch

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #17 on: August 11, 2013, 05:56:29 pm »

Thank you, no, Jeremy.

In that case definitely do not look at this encounter between a stork and a sparrow  8)
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wmchauncey

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Re: Egrets in flight
« Reply #18 on: August 11, 2013, 06:40:44 pm »

Yeah right don't look...how do they aim that well?       ;D
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