Bonus Photo: Long Exposure Heron
Filed Under: Photography
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.

Daily Photo: Night Heron
Filed Under: Photography
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.
