This morning on Caddo Lake in Texas my tour group had many opportunities to photograph great blue herons. Sometimes, as we'd approach, they would fly away from us. Those images were always not good. If the birds flew laterally across the scene, it was relatively easy to focus track them and to capture an attractive wing position. Here, the heron flew from left to right and this was the take-off. There are so many wing positions birds assume in flight, and blue herons in particular have beautiful wings and artful wing shapes. I would have preferred a faster shutter speed, but the early morning light was quite muted and the ISO was already high. Because these birds are slow fliers, though, I knew the wings would be sharp even with the compromised shutter speed. My settings were 1/1600, f/7.1, and 8000 ISO, and I used a 500mm focal length for the shot.
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