Egret at Sunrise

This morning promised to be difficult, but that promise was broken, thank goodness. We arrived before sunrise at Estero Lagoon with a large group, as I'm still co-leading a field photography workshop with Arthur Morris. The plan was for the group to go into the water and photograph the birds back toward shore. A couple participants didn't want to get wet, and I wasn't eager myself, so I volunteered to lead them to a pool we had visited a couple days prior.

This turned out to be a very good idea! Because there were only a few of us the birds there (egrets, snowy egrets, brown pelicans) were quite calm. The early morning light was golden and glorious, and we were able to photograph bird portraits with abandon. I later was able to capture many birds in various stages of flight, but the portraits stuck out as my favorites. The challenge was finding my favorite among the many images I captured. This one rose to the top in large part because I love the first light of sunrise rising over the bird's shoulder and illuminating it's face and beak. An incredible morning, to be sure!