This article is about capturing the moment when we’re photographing birds.

But… first off… my apologies for not posting a new article for the past couple of weeks. Time is a perishable commodity that sometimes is difficult to manage. Juggling projects… and then recently getting laid up for a quite a few days with the flu hasn’t helped.

For most of this month I’ve been focusing the bulk of my efforts on finishing a new eBook… which is finally very near completion… with an announcement imminent.

As I was working on one of the content sections of my new eBook, it occurred to me that this specific content area would be relevant to a wide cross section of bird photographers regardless of the camera format, body or lenses that they may own.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge. To view this article in a range of other languages click on the Canadian flag in the upper right corner.

The fundamental premise of this specific content section is that while images of static birds can have their own visual appeal, as photographers we are often more likely to be attracted to capturing the moment when some kind of action has occurred.

What follows is a selection of photographs of egrets. The objective is simply to review these images, and assess which of them appeal to us the most. And, most importantly why? Answering this self reflection is important as it can help focus our efforts when we’re out with our cameras.

Bird photography is about choices. Often when we focus on photographing one bird… we miss other opportunities. Having a clear idea in advance of the type of images that appeal to us the most allows to make the most productive use of our time.

As I went back through 11 years of photographic archives on this website, and searched through over 16,000 images that I’ve shared with readers… it became abundantly clear that I haven’t had that many opportunities to photograph egrets. At least compared to other species that have been featured on this website.

There are a number of factors that would contribute to that fact. Egrets are a migratory species in my area, and the habitat where they can be regularly found is somewhat limited. Also, egrets tend to be a bit more skittish than other migratory birds that visit the area.

As photographers we can learn a lot about ourselves by reviewing past work. Doing the image search for this article confirmed that I am definitely an action-oriented bird photographer. I would much rather capture photographs of birds in action… than simply perched.

This photographic skewing has affected how I approach things when I’m out in the field. I am much more aware of physical signals a bird shows when it is about to take flight, be aggressive, or make a strike to capture prey.

I’ve also adapted my shooting style over the years in terms of using pulse shooting rather than capturing long, interrupted image runs. There are three reasons for that. The first is buffer management. The second is being selective with the type of action I want to capture. And, the third is to save time in post.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,497 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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