Behind the Piece: Morning Catch
Share
I captured this image on a February morning at Myakka River State Park in Southwest Florida.
On that particular outing, I had been overlooking the great blue heron. I felt like I already had plenty of heron images, so my attention was elsewhere.
Then I turned around, and it was making me pay for ignoring it.
The shot sequence captured the heron twisting its head as it worked to wrangle in an eel. With the morning glow at its back, the scene had exactly the kind of drama wildlife photographers hope for — beautiful, fleeting, and a little difficult all at once.
Shooting into the sun takes a bit of finesse if you want to hold onto the visibility of the subject, but this moment was worth it.
A heron eating a fish is one thing.
A great blue heron eating an eel hits different.
When I created Morning Catch, I wanted the final piece to preserve the tension of that moment — backlit, fleeting, and unforgettable.