Precision Preening

This great egret was photographed at an Audubon rookery in SW Florida. The bird was a good distance away, but I liked that it was at the top of the tangle of foliage on the little island where it was perched. I went down low at the water level to eliminate more of the distracting foliage and waited for possible magic to happen. Fortunately I was richly rewarded in this preening moment with feathers aesthetically exposed and the perfectly twisted 90 degree head angle with the very tip of its beak still exposed. I prepared the shot by stopping down the exposure a couple notches, knowing how the bright sunlight would wash out the white feathers with overexposure. Fortunately all the detail was well preserved. The exposure level automatically created a very dark contrasting background in the shadows.