A Wing and a Prayer

Happy Sunday!

White Great Egrets in the early morning light standing against dark shadows on the water, and the raised wing creates a harmony of shapes…light and shadow…that catches and holds the eye. If you view this at xxl or O on Wide Eyed In Wonder you will see that the foreground bird is not critically sharp but it is still a striking image, and one I can not go back and try to better. An instant in time when everything coheres. It won’t happen just like this again.

Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL at about 1500mm. 1/800th sec. @ ISO 100. Metered at about f5.3. Programmed auto. –.7EV Exposure Compensation.

Some Recovery in Lightroom for the white highlights. A bit of Fill Light for the background (though adding too much brings up all kinds of color noise in the deep shadow). Added Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape sharpen preset to begin…then added Amount and increased Radius. Considerable noise reduction for the shadows, and a touch of Chromatic Aberration control for the color fringing in this very difficult lighting. Cropped slightly at the left for composition.

Again, not an image to blow up to 16×20, but still one I am happy to have caught. 

From Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL.

And here is a companion shot taken at a slightly shorter focal length.