A Moment With a Great Blue Heron
I am glad I didn’t overstay my welcome
On a recent walk on a hot summer afternoon in Virginia, this Great Blue Heron let me get surprisingly close to him/her. I watched for a minute or two, sharing in the calm and quiet of the moment, and then I respectfully moved on.
I made this photo and left without startling the heron so either it was tracking me and didn’t care, or was focused on something more important. Maybe there was a fish in the water off to the left. Regardless, I was happy to quietly observe the scene, take a few photos, and leave without disturbing it.
I took this photo with an iPhone 15 Pro Max and processed it in Photos and Snapseed. Here is the original image, as shot, for reference.
As you can see, the heron is backlit with the sun positioned high overhead and slightly behind the heron. I didn’t have a boat to change my point of view and liked the silhouette, so I am not complaining.
My original idea for editing was to bring out details from the shadows on the heron. I was not able to do this effectively, so I went with the silhouette as it was. I cropped in slightly to make…
