Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday encore ~ Sometimes you just get lucky

The post below illustrates the importance of luck as it relates to photography. 
In the 360-some days since I took these pictures, I have not seen another Great Blue Heron fly over. 

It was Saturday morning. The boys weren't doing anything particularly photogenic, so I went over to the garden to see what the girls were up to. I sat down on the edge of the raised flower bed, and Clara came right over to have her picture taken.

Post-processing: 0. Removed the thing was that was stabbing her in the neck with the clone tool; 1. Made duplicate layer; 2. Changed blending mode to Screen, set layer opacity to 52%; 3. PW's Warmer action at 71%; 4. PW's Boost action at 50%; 5. MCP's High Def Sharpening action at 50%; 6. PW's Quick Edge Burn action at 13%

What do you think? Is this my best side?



Maybe the folks at home would prefer me to look straight at them...



Wait...I think my comb looks better from this side.



Let's just say Clara is going to give Wynonna a run for her money in the diva department.

A split second after I took the picture above, all three girls spooked and ran for their coop. I heard wings flapping, then a large shadow fell over the garden. With the camera still attached to the front of my face, I looked up and pressed the shutter.



I fired off one more shot before he flew away.




Right place, right time, right light, right camera settings. Sometimes, you just get lucky.

16 comments:

  1. What's a GBH doing in your ever-so-dry neck of the woods? I have tons of them in my area but we have lots of water sources around.....

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  2. Oh... I should be so lucky! Great shot you got there!

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  3. That really is amazing. Until last year I lived on a lake/pond and saw great blue herons in the water and in the air every day, but in 17 years there i never saw one flying so low overhear. (And if I had I'm sure I'd never have had a camera at the ready.)

    Clara is so very beautiful. I'd be a diva too, if I looked like that!

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  4. An absolutely amazing photo!

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  5. Clara is perfection in feathers! :o) What a great shot you got of the GBH! I love the lighting on the last one especially.

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  6. You sure did get lucky. Great shot Carson both of tame and wild birds.
    Best always, Sandra

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  7. Carson, this is weird! We were out at Black Canyon Lake yesterday and saw an osprey's nest. A heron fly near it and momma or daddy (not sure which...) went right after the heron! Neither hubby nor I got a really good photo of it, so we are really enjoying yours today! They chased it away and the youngster went back to screaming for its breakfast!

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  8. That is the best picture of a heron I've ever seen. Possibly my favorite bird. I stumbled on a rookery this past spring. Some folks nearby said they watch the herons move in every year on Valentine's day.

    http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/2011/02/and-stood-there-amazed.html

    And after hatching.

    http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/2011/03/baby-of-different-feather.html

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  9. Great pics of the Heron! As for them being in the desert, they eat a lot of mice! They are always hunting in the field next to our house. I bet they would eat small snakes and lizards too!

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  10. Boy you sure did get lucky alright! I really can't imagine why a Heron would be flying over your place though. Seems odd. Hope it made it to where it was going!

    Thanks for the photo tutorial!

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  11. Great luck and a beautiful shot!

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  12. Oh, very nice. The second shot of the GBH is fabulous. I walked right up to one on the beach at Hilton Head. He was maybe five feet away... I did take photos and I wrote a poem about it as to me it was so amazing!

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  13. Wow!! Great shot Linda!!!

    Will you be perhaps putting it in your "For You" section? Pretty pretty please??

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