This is a 13 second exposure. The only bird I’ve ever chased that you can do a 13 second exposure of is the blue heron. The tipoff that this is a long exposure is the way the water becomes kind of weirdly silky. This is a crop–obviously, I wish the background wasn’t so much in focus, and that the bird was isolated, but it’s hard to take wildlife photography after dark with no flash.
This has been cropped, about 50%. I have tried and tried to get close enough to get a good shot of this guy. I’ve chased it from one side of the ponds to another (not on purpose–he just always seems to be hiding where I am going). Sometimes, I see it before it sees me. Other times, it’s in the air before I can bring up the camera.
When I see it first, I sometimes will drop to my belly and crawl towards it. Or if it’s high, like here, I will take tiny steps ever closer. I managed to cover a lot of distance for this shot–just not quite enough to get a really fantastic shot. Still, good enough for the daily photo.
Night herons are freaking awesome birds, by the way. Fun fact: Young Black-crowned Night-Herons often disgorge their stomach contents when disturbed. This habit makes it easy to study its diet.
My story “Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” a story of a goblin’s hopes for his idiot children, is available in Black Gate 15.
I recently finished the first draft of a YA novel called Takedown Notice set in the net-mage universe of my stories “Captain Blood’s B00ty” and “One Click Banishment.” What happens when the Magical Association of Atlantis finally gets the upper hand against the net mages in the spell program copyfight?