At the end of the day, my walk complete, I headed back to the car. Photo-ops were few on this trek, it was mostly a sojourn to a place where I could clear my mind and process a rough afternoon. I had quickened my pace and was not even scanning for birds when I caught site of this Great Egret perched on a log in the creek.

Stopping dead in my tracks, I framed a shot and fired. Reviewing it on the back of the camera showed the breast completely blown out. I knew what I needed to do. I slowly crept up closer to the bird and, arriving at a natural blind behind a tree, adjusted my setting and fired away.

It is said you should always expose for the bird. In this case, with the late afternoon sun over my shoulder, it meant dropping the exposure at least two stops to compensate for the light hitting the birds breast. The effect was a correctly exposed Egret that brilliantly contrasted its spring breeding plumage against a deeply underexposed background.

I hope you like the result.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III
¹⁄₁₅₀₀ sec at f/8.0 Bias: ‒ 2 ½ EV
Lens: TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011 @ 600 mm
ISO: 400
Edited in: Adobe Lightroom 2015CC