White and Dark Morph Reddish Egrets Hunting

Hunting white morph Reddish Egret – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light, not baited

As a bird photographer I feel it is very important to me that my images show my subjects and the settings they are in as accurately as possible. I have seen far too many images where the saturation and contrast has been adjusted to the point that the subject begins to look like a cartoon character or belongs on a neon sign. So, my method of post processing is to be very light handed when it comes to saturation and contrast with my bird photography.

The white morph Reddish Egret image above was cropped for composition and leveled then the bird was masked and sharpened slightly. The colors are as they came our of the camera.

Hunting dark morph Reddish Egret – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 220mm, natural light, not baited

This dark morph Reddish Egret image was taken the same day as the white morph image above. It was cropped slightly for composition then the bird was masked and minimally sharpened.

Both images accurately reflect what these wading birds actually look like and for me that is important. I also tend to write about what has actually happened while I photographed my subjects and to give information about them as accurately as possible so as to not mislead any one.

Recently I happened to notice a photographer who shoots at Fort De Soto make an inaccurate statement on Facebook about the Reddish Egret that is often seen and photographed at Fort De Soto’s north beach where they say “and no one has ever seen a second one around”.

As I mentioned above both of these Reddish Egrets were photographed the same day in the same location. I guess I am “no one” because I have seen and photographed more than one Reddish Egret together at that beach on several occasions.

Mia