About the Image(s)

Originally this was an infrared image converted to b/w and as a final step a slightly warm tone was applied to image. The image was nice as a b/w but I’m try to explore different tones to a finished image. The image was taken in Santa Rosa, Ca. where every year the Great Egrets come to court, build nests and have young. Every year I would come and watch the cycle of life of the Great Egret colony. By observing I learned so much. There were displays of courtship, preening, male fetching sticks for nest building, handing of the stick to female to build the nest, males displaying showing their plumes of feathers to attract a mate and so many more things that were part of the ritual each Spring. The male egret would fly all day fetching sticks for nest building never stopping for more than a few minutes after returning with a stick only to fly off again in search of another stick. There was always a sense of urgency in getting the sticks to build the nest. Sometimes the sticks were as short as a few inches with a few leaves and other times the sticks were as long as the egret’s body. What I learned from all this is that observation of the Great Egret’s rituals is important…just as important as knowing what your camera is capable of capturing.