Photo Friday: Schramm’s Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron, a graceful member of the avian species, has always proven to be a difficult subject for me to capture. Frequent visitors to my blog know that one of my visited photography locations is Schramm State Park Recreation Area in eastern Nebraska. Besides being close to my home, there is a resident heron that fishes in the small ponds nestled along the western boundary of the park. On a beautiful autumn evening last week I found the heron resting on the shore. I had originally planned on capturing photos of the red maples leaves that still hang from some of the trees. Instead, I setup in the reeds across the pond from the heron and began to click away at the shutter. As the light changed in the background, the verdant green grass complemented the blues of the heron. For a few moments I felt the stresses of life diminish. In retrospective I don’t think I could have asked better conditions for photographing such an elegant bird and becoming one with nature.

Technical Details:
Canon 70D, 500 f/4l, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec.
Schramm State Recreation Area, Nebraska