Classical Photography: Waterfowl at sunrise

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Waterfowl at sunrise

A pre-dawn walk is not my natural inclination. When I was young, I think I was semi-nocturnal. Now, however, I know that a lot of wild animals are active early in the day. Combined with oppressively hot daylight hours in North Carolina lately, that was enough incentive for me to wake well before the sun hit the horizon, and hit the trail with a camera.

When I got to the lake, the blue hour was just beginning to show tinges of the pink and gold that I hoped would follow. There were beautiful patches of mist over the water. A few geese and ducks floated around. Here's a shot to set the scene:

As I looked for interesting compositional possibilities, a Great Blue Heron arrived to hunt for fish!

He soon spotted one and caught it.

I hoped he would fly with his catch toward a particularly colorful area, and I was rewarded with this shot! It made my sacrifice of a little sleep very much worthwhile.

Overhead, a Canada Goose caught the rays of the rising sun just right, and parts of its white body were momentarily blood red. A series of shots shows little glints of red appearing here and there, and sometimes none at all, but this one split second capture took the prize. I had my hands full swinging the camera trying to track the bird; the camera saw what I would never have seen without it.

Looking toward the east, I exposed for richness of the sky colors and turned these fliers into silhouettes.

This section of causeway over the lake was colorful too, especially the reflection. I'm sure it's silly, but do you see why I call this photo "not a croc"?