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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighty-five: On Tour – cruising the Mississippi from Memphis to the Gulf > Great Blue Heron, Pensacola, Florida, 2012
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08-DEC-2012

Great Blue Heron, Pensacola, Florida, 2012

This bird was on hand at the dock to watch our ship depart Pensacola. A setting sun paints the evening sky at one corner of the frame, while the heron readies for flight from the roof of a building at the other corner. The building also reflects the warmth of the sunset on its reddish, patterned brickwork.

FujiFilm X10
1/60s f/2.5 at 18.7mm iso500 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis05-Jan-2013 00:12
Thanks, Tim, for mentioning the tension in this image. We anticipate its move, and imagine the flight to come.
Tim May04-Jan-2013 04:29
Tension is the word here - It feels like a phoenix about to dive into the fire.
Phil Douglis03-Jan-2013 04:49
Thanks, Iris. Patience is a key, of course. And so is persistence. But if the heron was not sitting there when we were about to depart, I would have never been able to make this shot. So some good fortune must be ascribed to this image as well.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)03-Jan-2013 00:46
Your patience and persistence paid off! Another image worked to perfection.
Phil Douglis31-Dec-2012 02:55
Thanks, Carol. The lesson we can all take away from this photograph is sheer persistence. I photographed this bird for at least two minutes, making shot after shot by framing it in different quadrants of the image until I found my favorite composition. I could have quit there, but the bird was just sitting upright, watching the sun go down. Just as I was about to call it a day (literally and figuratively), the bird flapped its wings once, and that is when I made this particular frame. An instant later it was gone. I have a shot of it in the air, but did not have as much tension in it as this image does.
Carol E Sandgren31-Dec-2012 01:48
What a moment you have captured! The bird is ready to take a flight from cold brick to the warm sunlight of dusk.
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