Morning Sunlight on a Lesser Egret in Flight

These Lesser Egret's, the smaller species of the Great Egret, are beautiful birds especially in flight, add a little early morning sunlight and you have a truly magnificent sight.
This bird flew right overhead just as the morning sun peeked over the trees.

"Into The Light"

Blue Heron in Early morning Flight

Blue Heron In Early Morning Flight #2

In case you haven't noticed, I have been on a coastal bird kick for about a month now.
I have been pursuing a pair of bald eagles for quiet some time and they seem to elude me on every outing. They are however, wild birds who have a very low tolerance to human presence. On this particular outing I was set up waiting for the eagle pair to make their magnificent entrance to the pond and while awaiting, a beautiful Blue Heron that was perched nearby, caught my attention.
The sun doesn't hit this particular spot until late morning so just as the sun started to shine through onto this beautiful bird, he took flight. I underexposed the image by a couple of stops and was able to create the blacked out background as I captured his astounding flight.
I Decided to use both exposures of this Bird Because they both show his beauty in flight so well. Let me know what you Think!!!

Autumn Stroll

A White-Tailed Doe takes an early morning stroll alone the edge of a algae covered pond in search for food. There were three other does with her that later came out behind her to feed. By that time the sun was beaming down directly upon them and there was no chance for an exposure that wasn't blown out.

Blue Heron sits a spell.

This Handsome fellow parked his rear end atop a pine tree on the opposite side of the pond from where I was set up, trying to capture the pair of bald eagles in action.
For the entire morning he stayed in this spot...just chilled and took it easy..more than likely he had already eaten his breakfast when he came in and perched on the pine tree. I love his colors..dark blue, blue/grey, and the flowing neck feathers.
The pine tops and pine cones seemed to make the composition complete.

Wood Stork Shows off his beautiful Wingspan!!

A wood stork shows off his beautiful wing span while catching a few rays of the morning sunlight at Skidaway Island. Savannah GA.

This is one of more images to come from this weeks bald eagle photo shoot.
This beautiful wood-stork came in just after daylight and perched on a dead tree to wait on fishing possibilities. when he flew in, the eagles had already left early and it was too dark to make an image. I continued to watch him as he put on a wonderful display while sunning in the morning light.
Unfortunately Mr baldy eluded me on every occasion. I was not able to capture the images that I thought would truly show the beauty of this gorgeous raptor up close and personal, but was able to capture images of other coastal birds in their habitat.
This pair of bald eagles are wild and not very tolerant of human presence,so it has been very hard to get into a position that will allow me to capture a really nice image of them. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve though..lol
I have been setting up and quietly getting into position on this pair every morning since Wednesday. Trying not to disturb their natural day to day routine, I sat up quietly before daylight at the bend of a large salt/fresh water pond where they have been roosting and fishing early in the morning. Two of the mornings were so cloudy that I was struggling to get enough light to get a decent image. One of the mornings they left the roost for parts unknown right at daylight, the last morning...same thing. I know that they were feeling my presence, so I decided not to continue on Sunday, I will give them the week and then try again in a different spot this coming weekend. The absolute worse thing that a wildlife photographer can do is to pressure an animal or bird into changing it's natural pattern of movement...when that happens you are too close.
More images to come!!

High Falls and Indian Springs late autumn images.

The intensity of the water rushing over the rocks and downstream really caught my eye in this image.


The Beauty and grace of this waterfall with surrounding forest color is what I was after here.


This watershed waterfall is water from Mcintosh Lake that flowed into a small basin.


Sheer power runs over this rock formation into the Towaliga River below.


All Three falls captured together with late autumn color accents in the background.


A more intimate view of a fall shows the beauty of the water patterns flowing over the rock formations.


Mcintosh Lake in Late afternoon sunlight with really nice clou formations.


Indian Springs Nature Trail in Autumn array. This image almost made me feel like I was wrapped up completely in the beauty of the forest.


I managed to arrive early afternoon for this shoot and the sun was still way too harsh to even think about shooting waterfalls, so Karen and I hit the trails at Indian springs first. The sun filtering through the canopy of the forest is always a beautiful sight to behold. and also allows for some great compositions. As the sun set farther in the west I was able to capture some really nice images of the falls at High Falls State Park in Jackson GA. If you have not visited this state park I would recommend doing so. It is very peaceful and different from most waterfall sights that I have seen that are in close walking distance.
I still have a few images that I cut as seconds that I may post later on. I will let you know if it happens..lol.
Please feel free to comment on these and all of my images. Let me know your favorites and what draws your attention to a particular image.

Almost There!!!

Look for images from the High Falls shoot coming soon!! I promise lol!!