Florida Blue Heron Bird Photography

Wildlife Photos is always something I am after when I visit Florida and Everglade National Park. This Blue Heron photograph was taken in southwest Florida where the bird patiently was resting on a tree log at Turner River. The river is easily accessible from Turner River Road that follows the river; certainly one of the greatest Wildlife Photography locations in southwest Florida. The dirt road provides plenty of ample photography opportunities for the nature photographer and enthusiast. A 400+ mm telephoto lens provides sufficient reach for frame filling nature photography images from the comfort and safety of your car. Besides your long lens you also want to bring a Polarizing Filter to minimize glare on the river water and boost colors of the wildlife and surrounding nature.

In this particular photography image a larger aperture (small f-stop number such as 5.6 and less) minimized the depth of field as it is mostly suitable when photographing birds. In these types of photos we strive for a quiet backdrop that beautifully isolates the main subject from any distractions in the back and solely lays the focus on the main subject. The long telephoto lens not only made the wildlife accessible but also generated a nice bokeh in the river highlights. The aperture was set to f/4 providing sufficient Depth of Field and in combination with an ISO100 setting resulted in an Exposure time of 1/30 seconds. In the post processing steps I removed dust spots, minimally adjusted brightness, contrast, and color saturation before sharpening the final image of the Blue Heron.