{"id":15808,"date":"2014-09-12T03:24:58","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T09:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=15808"},"modified":"2025-09-20T16:33:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T21:33:54","slug":"little-blue-heron-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/09\/12\/little-blue-heron-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Blue Heron Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-157149 size-full\" title=\"Little Blue Heron portrait, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479.jpg\" alt=\"Little Blue Heron portrait, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"15807\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Little Blue Heron portrait &#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/400, ISO 500, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is another image I came across last week and wondered why I hadn&#8217;t processed it because\u00a0I don&#8217;t have many Little Blue Heron portraits in my portfolio. I like the heron&#8217;s look of concentration and the color of the water.<\/p>\n<p>I had been photographing the Little Blue while sitting quietly in the lagoon and the heron moved much closer to me than I had expected a few times it came too close for me to focus on it.<\/p>\n<p>The heron didn&#8217;t seem to care at all about the crazy woman with the one big glass eye.<\/p>\n<p>I think I had never processed it because the neck of the bird isn&#8217;t sharply in focus due to my depth of field. I could have changed that but my shutter speed would have been too slow to photograph this active bird.<\/p>\n<p>A friend of mine says I am too tough on myself in regards to my photography. Maybe they are right.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/little-blue-heron-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Little Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is another image I came across last week and wondered why I hadn&#8217;t processed it because I don&#8217;t have many Little Blue Heron portraits in my portfolio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,81],"tags":[4004,4021,4471,4083,4142,14752,85,173,627,626,84,4246,3980,4046,313],"class_list":["post-15808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-little-blue-herons","tag-adult","tag-bird-photography","tag-bird-watching","tag-birding","tag-close-up","tag-coastal-island","tag-egretta-caerulea","tag-gulf-coast","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-little-blue-heron","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-pinellas-county","tag-portrait","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3479.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-46Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8905,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/18\/great-blue-heron-portraits-from-florida-and-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":15808,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Heron Portraits from Florida and Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In Florida I found it easy to get close up images of Great Blue Herons because quite often they are used to the presence of humans but here in Utah that isn't the case and Great Blue Herons are sort of skittish.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling adult Great Blue Heron portrait at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-florida-mia-mcpherson-8142.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-florida-mia-mcpherson-8142.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-florida-mia-mcpherson-8142.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-florida-mia-mcpherson-8142.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47830,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/07\/30\/gray-windy-day-great-blue-heron-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":15808,"position":1},"title":"Gray &#038; Windy Day Great Blue Heron Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This Great Blue Heron wandered past me one December morning at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach on a gray, windy day and because it was close I simply had to take a photo of the large wading bird.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up Great Blue Heron on a gray day, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8008.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8008.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8008.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8008.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9281,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/08\/26\/great-blue-heron-up-close-and-not-so-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":15808,"position":2},"title":"Great Blue Heron Up Close And Not So Close","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One December morning in 2008 I was sitting in the sand at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida when a Great Blue Heron came up and perched on a driftwood stump that had washed up onto the shore.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron portrait at the north beach of Fort De Soto, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6365,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/10\/15\/ive-got-the-blues-great-blue-herons-that-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":15808,"position":3},"title":"I&#8217;ve Got The Blues &#8211; Great Blue Herons That Is!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems I have always had a fondness for Great Blue Herons although I don't recall the first time I ever saw one. Great Blues are large wading birds that have a prehistoric look to them and even their calls; more like a croak, sound like something from the long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron portrait - Warm morning light, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6455.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6455.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6455.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6455.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5838,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/08\/02\/great-blue-heron-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":15808,"position":4},"title":"Great Blue Heron Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This Great Blue Heron got up close and personal with me a few years ago in Florida, it largely ignored my presence altogether as it stalked prey on shore of the Gulf of Mexico.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up of a Great Blue Heron at the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":105256,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/22\/great-blue-heron-catching-fish-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":15808,"position":5},"title":"Great Blue Heron Catching Fish At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"On my last trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I came across this Great Blue Heron and spent only one minute photographing the large wading bird.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron with a small carp, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/great-blue-heron-adult-marsh-mia-mcpherson-4745.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/great-blue-heron-adult-marsh-mia-mcpherson-4745.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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