About the Image(s)

Nikon D850, 200-400mm ISO 500, f5.6, 1/1000 from monopod

June in Florida is mating season for the Woodstorks. I have located a pond banked on the west side by mangroves a scrub pines both of which offer ample nesting material. My intended goal was to simply capture shots of Woodstork bringing nesting material back to his nest. The only challenge I offered myself was that I wanted a stork to be carrying a large stick and not some little twig as is often the case.

I arrived just after sunrise and selected a shooting location with my back to the east because this would allow the birds to be largely front lit by the rising sun and also because the off shore winds would be blowing from east to west thus guaranteeing the majority of the returning storks would be flying from the scrub pines toward my camera. As the stork returned I knew it would drop into a glide with wings fully spread. Since my plan was to capture only birds with large sticks I hoped the horizontal position of the stick would complement and balance the wing spread. The storks didn’t quite get my message about keeping the stick horizontal, but this image with its size still works fairly well. My camera position also allowed me to be close to eye level with the arriving bird and providing a stronger feeling of intimacy. In post I adjusted the white balance to retain the whites in the bird’s wings. The low position of the sun helped to light the underside of the dark wings and the dark background helps to separate the subject. I would have liked a bit more space on the right, but at least the wing tips were saved. I cropped this into a pano format to emphasize the spread of the wings and bring more attention to the bird and the stick.