A marathon of Great Blue Heron flight shots. 19 of them.
Four days ago I found this Great Blue Heron above a creek bed at Farmington Bay WMA. I took a few shots of ‘him’ where he was but in this habitat a few is all I need. At first he wasn’t doing much so for a while the two of us just sat there and stared at each other.
My best chance for more interesting photos of him was flight shots but I was so close to him I knew I’d have to be incredibly lucky to keep him completely in frame with his huge wings flailing, much less get compositions I like. In bird photography you have to play the cards you’re dealt so I waited a while to see what might happen.
I ended up being luckier than I had any right to expect. When he took off I kept him in frame and in focus for 19 photos and I’m going to include every last one of them in today’s post, which I believe is a new record for Feathered Photography. 19 photos is almost certainly overkill but when I tried to whittle the number down I couldn’t decide which ones to omit, so you get’em all.
I may not have clipped or cut off any body parts in these photos but in many of them he was too close to one or more of the frame edges, resulting in wonky compositions. They are what they are.
OK, let’s get on with it. I’ll keep my narration to a minimum.
He squawked three times and then…
began to take off.
Dang, that’s a lot of wingspan to try to keep in frame from this close distance.
That’s better. And a little easier.
His intended destination was the bottom of the creek bed perhaps 75 yards away so…
he was always flying slightly downhill.
Prehistoric-looking birds, aren’t they.
At times he was tipped so far forward I thought he might go ass over teakettle but…
he didn’t, not quite.
In this shot he was too close to two frame edges and then…
it got even worse. No body parts clipped though.
More of almost the same so I’ll shut up for a few frames.
Finally, he’s nearly over the creek that we can’t see, as evidenced by….
the short grasses in the background beginning to green up a little.
That’s it, we’re done. After this shot he began to turn away from me and I began to lose focus on him because of tall dried grasses on this side of the creek that were in front of him.
I was pleasantly surprised by three things in this series.
- That I kept him completely in frame for so many photos with me being so close to him.
- When it works, it doesn’t always – not by a long shot, I’m amazed by the ability of the Canon R5 to keep the bird in focus. I’ll take some of the credit but I couldn’t have done it without Canon’s animal/eye detection.
- How much depth of field I got. For nearly every one of these shots the entire huge bird, from wingtip to wingtip and bill tip to toe tip, is sharp or nearly so. With me being so close I’m at a loss for words to explain how that happened. But I’ll take it.
Once again, apologies for such a long post. Tomorow’s edition of Feathered Photography will be shorter. By magnitudes.
Ron
Nice series with some great photos! I love to see sequences. You have me dreaming of the R5!
Awesome set of shots, Ron!! And prehistoric – YES!! Love these birds.
Spectacular, congratulations!
This marathon is definitely better than the ones with a t-shirt and free banana! 😉 These are phenomenal shots, especially with the proximity of the GBH. What a gorgeous bird!
Thanks, Marty. I’ll bet it’s been 40 years since I’ve eaten a banana and that time it was under duress. I don’t hate them unless they’re mushy and/or brown but to me even the best bananas are only ‘fillers’. Might as well be eating tofu (hope Lyle doesn’t see this).
Superb series, thanks for sharing!
Charlotte Norton
Thanks, Charlotte.
How I would love to be able to fly – though it doesn’t look easy – for bird or for photographer…
As you know, EC, I share that aspiration.
Great series! What was you aperture setting?
Thanks, April. F/7.1.
You have delivered to us a surfeit of riches today. Remarkable that you got all these shots from your truck, although I suspect that also enabled you to get those shots at all. They usually take off way before I get close to them when on foot. The capabilities of the R5 are well utilized in your hands. The noodle get some credit, too. Both of them.
“The noodle gets some credit, too.”
Very perceptive of you, Lyle. Most folks wouldn’t realize that.
I have my noodle so fine tuned that when I’m panning horizontally, like I had to do a LOT of in this series, my noodle slides easily across my window, allowing my lens to follow the bird smoothly for a long distance. I don’t have as much range when I’m following a bird vertically but that doesn’t happen nearly as often.
What a great post! Thank you for including them all. It’s like one of those slo-mo/stop action films of athletes (divers, gymnasts, skaters) when they demonstrate a remarkable move. He’s got a lot of long parts to get under control – legs, neck, wings, body, and for me it all begins to come together in the 4th from last #7563 – legs together and back, wings beautifully outspread, neck nearly straight. But then the last one, he totally nails it. 10/10 for GBH and photographer!
The intensity of those eyes… (again, for both bird and photographer!)
“He’s got a lot of long parts to get under control”
Boy, that’s for sure. I don’t know how they do it. Thanks, Carolyn.
Great series and especially nice not to have body parts clipped. They’re very graceful when they pull the neck back and travel a longer distance but they can look very awkward when they are only going a short distance and keep that neck stretched forward. The head seems to drop lower and lower and you wonder how they maintain balance. For this kind of action 19 shots i ertainly not too many.
Well, iit’s beginning to sound like I didn’t put anyone to sleep with this many photos, including you, Dan. That’s very good to know. I had fears…
No apologies needed for such a sharp series! Very interesting wing angles and no missed body parts! Excellent – thanks for sharing Ron 🙂
Thank you, Kathleen.
A new world record for consecutive GBH still shots recorded this day by Utah photographer Ron Dudley. Excellent work getting these big guys and gals full frame in take off and in flight shots. This is not easy. I think he was squawking in the beginning because he had something he was waiting for and you disturbed him. My favorites are 9, 11, and 15, but all are good.
We have so many GBHs around our lakes I very often ignore them, but should not.
I don’t know about a world record, Everett. But it certainly is a personal record.
Ron,
I am lucky to get one shot of a bird in flight. Commendable to say the least. It is such a beautiful bird. Nice series, really enjoyable.
Stephen
Much appreciated, Stephen. Thanks.
A remarkable series of photos. Glad you posted them all. I tip my hat to you.
Birds are a wonder; these biomechanical flying machines. A series of photos like these allow us all the time in the world to marvel at the details of this miracle of nature. Every frame is a pause in the poetry of motion for us to dwell on the beautifully utilitarian form that facilitates the function of flight.
Thank you Ron!
Very well said, Michael. Thank you.
I have sat for hours watching the Great Blue fish in a remote pond in MN and have never seen it take off. These photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing!!
Look at the bright side, MJ. At least that means that your heron is sticking around so you have more time with it. 🙂
Last month I saw one of these guys four or five times at the lake in Forest Dale golf course. By the time I was sure of what I was watching they took off in a fast retreat and your skill is so obvious to me to get even a few frames of the bird let alone 19 plus. Great article and pictures.
Betty, when I lived in Sugarhouse I used to see a few pelicans at that golf course but I don’t remember seeing herons. Good to know they’re there.
Wow! Great series. 19 was not too many. I like the flip book idea for this sequence.
“19 was not too many”
Good to know, Brett. Thanks.
What a wonderful post– it’s impressive how many of those frames capture
ALL of the huge body and grand wing span ! My favorite of all of them is the
second-to-last — there’s something about the semicircular fans of grass that
echo the fans of those great wings–looks like a classic Japanese
print …….
“it’s impressive how many of those frames capture ALL of the huge body and grand wing span”
No one was more surprised than yours truly, Kris. Thank you.
Nice series. I can feel on my face the air displaced by his flapping wings. My favorite-as he prepared to lift off.
Thanks, Marcia. One of my favorites would have been the photo between #3 and #4. But in that one, with his wings stretched mostly up and his long legs pushing off, I cut off both wings. So I didn’t include it.
Wonderful series, Ron! 🙂 As big and slow as they are I have trouble with one frame! Neck always looks snake like to me when stretched out in flight. 😉 Beautiful birds……..
Thank you, Judy.
Glorious series Ron, almost feels like I’m there. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it, Mark. Thanks.
I agree Mark! almost felt like flapping my arms to help it get airborn!!
🤣
This would be a fabulous flip-card project. (Not that I have the know-how…) Great post. And i’m especially grateful this morning because it’s a perfect post for a person to take their mind off of other things. I’m sure i’ll go back to it several times today.
“Not that I have the know-how”
Ha, I don’t either, Nina. I hope you enjoy your additional run-throughs of this post.