{"id":5161,"date":"2012-06-10T03:55:05","date_gmt":"2012-06-10T09:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:45:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:45:47","slug":"great-egret-on-a-stormy-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/06\/10\/great-egret-on-a-stormy-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Egret On A Stormy Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted a Snowy Egret<\/span><\/a> hunting in early morning light and mentioned that early morning or late afternoon light can add drama to an image, in today’s post I will explain a bit more about the dramatic light in the Snowy Egret image and these images of a Great Egret. Both egrets were photographed on the same morning at Fort De Soto’s north beach.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Egret in flight with a storm in the background – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 150mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually before going out to photograph birds or other wildlife I go on line to check the weather radar and try to determine whether there will be clouds and if so which direction they are moving.<\/p>\n

On the morning that I created these Great Egret images and the Snowy Egret I wrote about yesterday I could see on the radar that it was clear to the east of Fort De Soto<\/span><\/a> but there were storm clouds hanging about a mile or two off of the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico that were moving very slowly towards the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

I hesitated\u00a0because after\u00a0driving 45 minutes to get to Fort De Soto I was concerned that the clouds\u00a0would have moved on shore while I was making my way there.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Storm Watcher – Great Egret – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I am very glad that I decided to take the risk of not being able to photograph that morning because of being rained out due to the storm off of the coast that day.<\/p>\n

When the sun rose\u00a0at dawn\u00a0with it clear to the east it lit the birds up beautifully plus\u00a0it also seemed that the light bounced off of those stormy clouds and back towards me and my subjects giving the images a lovely ambiance.<\/p>\n

\"Great Great Egret on a stormy morning – Nikon D200, handheld, g7.1, 1\/640, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The billowing\u00a0thunder clouds\u00a0off shore created moody backgrounds for all of the frames of the Great Egret. I could have gotten to Fort De Soto and been rained out that morning but instead I came away with images that thoroughly delighted me! It just goes to show “That you won’t know unless you go”.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Great Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted a Snowy Egret hunting in early morning light and mentioned that early morning or late afternoon light can add drama to an image, in today’s post I will explain a bit more about the dramatic light in the Snowy Egret image and these images of a Great Egret (Ardea alba).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142807,"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":[27,25,704,362],"tags":[4004,4272,11396,4101,11394,5132,743,351,4052,4122,363,4077,519,4500,609,11395,313,4032],"class_list":["post-5161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-great-egrets","tag-adult","tag-ardea-alba","tag-billowing","tag-clouds","tag-coast-line","tag-coastal","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-great-egret","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-nature","tag-storm","tag-stormy-skies","tag-thunder-clouds","tag-wading-birds","tag-wildlife-photography"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-6474.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1lf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5158,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/06\/09\/snowy-egret-hunting-in-early-morning-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":5161,"position":0},"title":"Snowy Egret Hunting In Early Morning Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Light plays a huge part in my photography, I try to be at my location just before the sun comes up or goes down to take advantage of the beautiful light that occurs at those times of the day.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Egret hunting in early morning light, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-mia-mcpherson-6371.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-mia-mcpherson-6371.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-mia-mcpherson-6371.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-mia-mcpherson-6371.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5165,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/06\/11\/white-morph-reddish-egret-in-stormy-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":5161,"position":1},"title":"White Morph Reddish Egret in Stormy Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In my two previous posts of a Snowy Egret and a Great Egret I mentioned how the early morning light and a nearby storm gave those images a feeling of drama. 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The egret appeared to be glowing.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Egret stepping into the light, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-in-spotlight-mia-mcpherson-6585.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-in-spotlight-mia-mcpherson-6585.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-in-spotlight-mia-mcpherson-6585.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-in-spotlight-mia-mcpherson-6585.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":106258,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/09\/15\/late-summer-snowy-egret-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":5161,"position":4},"title":"Late Summer Snowy Egret Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Monday I focused on taking Snowy Egret images after taking photos of a Virginia Rail and Lesser Yellowlegs at a near empty pond At Farmington Bay.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up adult Snowy Egret at Farmington Bay, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-pond-mia-mcpherson-3645.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-pond-mia-mcpherson-3645.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-pond-mia-mcpherson-3645.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/snowy-egret-pond-mia-mcpherson-3645.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15794,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/09\/09\/snowy-egret-at-dawn\/","url_meta":{"origin":5161,"position":5},"title":"Snowy Egret At Dawn","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Snowy Egret at dawn next to the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas County, Florida","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Egret and a pastel sunrise on the shoreline of the Gulf at Fort De Soto, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-pastel-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-3267.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-pastel-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-3267.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-pastel-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-3267.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-pastel-sunrise-mia-mcpherson-3267.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}