Up Close with a GBH...

nrmdisk

While driving home from a shooting trip today, I saw a GBH in a small pond near the highway and stopped to grab a few shots. Started out a fair ways from him, but ended up shooting through the bushes from about 10 feet, which is as close as I've ever gotten to one...

Across the pond:





To my surprise, he flew across the pond CLOSER to me, but behind some bushes!



I slowly worked my way to a better location



He seemed content that I meant no harm, and allowed me to get very close! (Shot at 50mm with a 1.4 TC):



Shot at 200 with 1.4 TC, no cropping other than removing enough to convert my 4/3 format to an 8x10:






Full gallery here: http://nrmdisk.smugmug.com/gallery/6436108_wifLT#407798460_DDZ8Y

Snowgirl

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a "GBH"? I thought that bird was an egret? Am I wrong? Ooops. We have one living in our pond that I've been shooting off and on.

[Deleted User]

Great Blue Heron. We have them in our ponds here too.

Nice photos showing its habitat. I try to sneak along the solid section of fence in our yard and then rise over the top to get my shot. Some of them have figured out that the dogs cannot get through the fence. They watch the dogs but no longer fly away quickly.

Jim

dlplumer

Great close ups Jim

Snowgirl

Jim K wrote:

Great Blue Heron. We have them in our ponds here too.

Nice photos showing its habitat. I try to sneak along the solid section of fence in our yard and then rise over the top to get my shot. Some of them have figured out that the dogs cannot get through the fence. They watch the dogs but no longer fly away quickly.

Jim

Thanks. We have 3 ponds on our property and a river. The herons / egrets (according to Wikepedia) are daily visitors. I just don't know enough about birds to identify which specific types we have.

C.

[Deleted User]

dlplumer wrote:

Great close ups Jim

I too think they are great close ups but they are not mine. They are Neil's. He is the OP. I just answered What is a GBH? None of my shots are as good as these close ups.

Jim

anonymouscuban

Is this the same bird?
Took this at the Wild Animal Park yesterday:

nrmdisk

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Ric Grupe

I really like that last one, Neil.

Try brightening it up and making it a tad sharper and see what you think.:D

nrmdisk

Ric Grupe wrote:

I really like that last one, Neil.

Try brightening it up and making it a tad sharper and see what you think.:D

Thanks Ric...I'll give it a try. I usually don't do any out of camera sharpening...not a big fan of over-sharpened pics, so I try to do as little as possible, but I guess it is needed sometimes!