I’ve seen a lot of Egret landing images shot at high speed to freeze their motion, so I thought I’d experiment with panning at a slower exposure time. I shot this image in July 2007, but didn’t want to post it back then because I couldn’t get all the bird’s reflection in the water. It’s an out-take, but it adds a little diversity to my photo stream.

On a side note, I need a break from work, so I’m taking the next few days off and head up the mountains to catch some Fall colors. I haven’t been able to shoot anything new lately, so I’m looking forwards to the road trip. Early reports for Fall colors in the Eastern Sierra for this weekend aren’t that promising (early colors & wild fire smokes). Since I already made traveling arrangements last week, I’ll take my chances and just go. Hopefully, I’ll get a good photo to post next week.

"Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead… "
-o-

“… Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
–Albert Camus

The water color is a result of shooting during sunset time. There were patchy clouds reflecting some of the sunset colors into the water. I changed white balance to “shade” during raw conversion to get warmer tones. I also cloned out a few distractions on the water surface. I wish I could have gotten more details and sharpness out of the birds, but given the available light and what I had to work with, I am happy with these shots.

For over a month, the Zaca fire is still burning in the Lost Padres National Forest, dumping ashes all over town. During the evening, the sunset paints the smoky sky with eerie shades of dark colors. Not wanting to shoot beach sunsets under these skies, I’ve been turning my attention to these birds during sundown.