By Mia McPherson, on May 18th, 2012%  Snowy Egret - Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural, low light Yesterday I posted a Snowy Egret in flight in what many bird photographers would call good light and the image had wonderful dynamics because of the action of the bird.
This Snowy Egret image was taken just after the sun had risen above the horizon in about the same location as the egret image I posted yesterday but at a completely different time of the year, September of 2008.
This image conveys a very different mood but both Snowy Egret images have wonderful appeal for me.
Mia
More Snowy Egret images
By Mia McPherson, on February 25th, 2012%  Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in low light ~ Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 240mm, natural light
The sun had not yet crested the eastern horizon when I photographed this Great Blue Heron as it hunted in the shallow waters on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico. Although I could have waited for better light I wanted to capture this heron as it stalked its prey just before the golden light of dawn arrived so I laid down on the sugar sand created a nice series of images of this bird. The tide was very low that morning and that exposed an off shore sandbar that is seen on the horizon as a gray line and just above that is the Earth’s shadow.
Mia
More Great Blue Heron images
By Mia McPherson, on December 28th, 2011% Where is the light when you want it? Yesterday it was hiding behind the clouds and lake fog when I spotted this Peregrine Falcon at a close distance, on prey and sticky. The frustrations of being a bird photographer were glaringly apparent to me yesterday morning. Curses!
Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) on top of prey ~ Davis County, Utah
Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/160, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light, not baited or set up
I was the closest I have ever been to a wild Peregrine Falcon yesterday but I felt my heart sink knowing that the light was not going to be in my favor. There were no visible openings in the clouds. And it there it was on prey too!
Since moving to Utah and being faced with more low light situations than I ever had in Florida, I have had plenty of practice learning the techniques required for when the light just will not cooperate. So I just attempted to do my best with the light that I had.
I had 27 minutes with this Peregrine Falcon so I played with many different settings, changed my ISO for faster shutter speeds, adjusted my exposure compensation and my aperture trying to get sharp, interesting images of this young falcon.
I watched and photographed the falcon tearing into the Northern Shoveler beneath it, there were feathers flying everywhere and unfortunately there just wasn’t enough light to capture that action even at ISO 1600, all I got were blurry feathers floating softly towards the ground.
I also observed the falcon’s crop growing larger and larger as it ate.
Peregrine Falcon removing intestines of its prey ~Davis County, Utah
Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/320, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited or set up
I could barely detect a catchlight in the falcon’s eyes because the rays of the cold looking barely touched the eyes but despite the low light of the barely visible sun I kept right on shooting and hoping I’d get a few images of this beautiful bird worth saving.
I did get those images but; oh, what I would have given for the sweet light just after dawn. Perhaps another time.
Mia
By Mia McPherson, on November 24th, 2011% Happy Thanksgiving!
Because I live far from my family and have no children at home my yearly Thanksgiving tradition includes spending a part of my day out photographing birds, mostly early morning outings. This morning I did get out to photograph but I came home “skunked”. There are low heavy clouds here today but even worse, there were no birds close enough to even do low light bird photography. Well my tradition was not broken, I did go regardless of being skunked.
Low light Sanderling in breeding plumage ~ Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
D200, handheld, laying on the sand, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 400, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light
I firmly believe that fine quality, compelling images can be taken in low light. Yes, most of the time bird photographers desire that “sweet light” so often spoke of, but there are situations where no matter how closely you look at the weather on TV or online radar images that the light will not be what you thought (or hoped) it might be.
The morning I took the Sanderling (Calidris alba) image above the forecast was for partly cloudy skies. The radar looked good so I gathered my gear and drove to Fort De Soto in the very early pre-dawn light. On the way there I could clearly see the sky beginning to turn colors and I was excited about spending the morning sand crawling or immersed in the water to get photograph of the birds I would see. Excited until I looked to my west while at the first bridge just after the toll booth.
Argh, those radar images didn’t pick up the sea fog that was swirling over the north beach. “Too late” I told myself, “you’ve driven 45 minutes to get here, make the best of that fog!”.
There was enough ambient light coming through the fog to produce fine images of the birds that morning, for the image above I didn’t even feel the need to use exposure compensation which does need to be used on occasion in foggy conditions. When I am processing images taken in low light I try to retain that feeling by not overdoing contrast, saturation or sharpening. The image above “whispers”, it doesn’t “shout” and I like it that way.
Preening juvenile Roseate Spoonbill in low light ~ Fort De Soto County Park, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, laying on the edge of a lagoon, f7.1, 1/200, ISO 400, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 250mm, natural light
I found this juvenile Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja); with some adult, preening in a sea fog one morning that I went to Fort De Soto. The weather forecast for the day was clear, the radar looked good on line but the fog came rolling in not long after I got to the beach. It happens.
When I post processed this image I did apply a minimal amount of Noise Reduction to the background to help with the noise I saw evident while hoping to retain the foggy feeling and only slightly increased the saturation globally.
Today; I could have created similar images like this Sanderling and Roseate Spoonbill… if ONLY there had been birds nearby.
The forecast for today? Partly cloudy. Man, the weather forecasters were wrong.
Again, Happy Thanksgiving!
Mia
By Mia McPherson, on October 23rd, 2011% 
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) with Earth Shadow
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1/320, ISO 640, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 340mm, natural light
When I look at this image I can recall the morning that I created this file with a great degree of clarity. The sun had not quite risen above the horizon to the east but there was a touch of pre-dawn light, the Earth’s Shadow was visible to the naked eye. I’ve always been thrilled to see the Earth’s shadow.
The wind was blowing at about 35 knots (40 mph), waves were crashing onto shore behind the dune the heron was on, grasses were bent low and the fine grained sugar sand; hurled by the strong wind, stung my exposed skin. Not the most pleasant circumstances but for some reason I felt especially invigorated that morning. I’m not sure if it was the cool wind, seeing the Earth Shadow, being outdoors immersed in nature or a combination of all of the above.
Low lighting conditions can be a difficult challenge for bird photographers who shoot in aperture priority (I do) because shutter speed drops dramatically when there is little available light.
Not too many months before I photographed this Great Blue Heron I had always hesitated to use ISO’s above 320, I had heard so many other owners of Nikon’s D200 complain a lot about the bad noise issues they had encountered using ISO’s over 320. I had listened to those warnings for awhile after getting the D200 but then decided to do some experimenting on my own. On a morning with very low light I photographed another Great Blue Heron at ISO 1000 and when I looked at the image on my monitor at home I found very little evident noise in those frames and soon became bolder at using higher ISO’s.
Sometimes it pays to experiment, stretch your skills or to push your gear’s limit a bit. I’m glad I had experimented with higher ISO’s in the months prior to the morning I photographed this Great Blue Heron or I may have walked on by the bird thinking I couldn’t get enough shutter speed, so why bother. I am happy that thought didn’t occur to me.
The Great Blue Heron images from the series I created that blustery November morning on Fort De Soto’s north beach are still favorites of mine and likely always will be.
Mia
Another Great Blue Heron image from that morning can be found here.
More Great Blue Heron images
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Photographing a Tricolored Heron from a tidal lagoon
Focusing on Wildlife Contributor
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