Submitter's name:	Joel Wilcox
Title:	Heron
Camera:	E-330
Lens:	DZ 50-200
Aperture:	f8
Shutter speed:	1/500
Subject/location:	Heron on Cedar River, Palisades-Kepler State Park, Linn County, Iowa. I rode my Olympus-toting vehicle (BMW R1100R) to the Palisades-Kepler State Park on a cold morning in October with the intention of shooting my Walt tribute, which was to be a shot of my motorcycle -- the vehicle that typically gets me to within 500 feet of the shot -- amid the fall colors. I knew Walt had a motorcycle in his basement. I felt he would approve. But as I rode down to the river I noticed a heron among a gaggle of Canada geese and some ducks. There was a big tree that I managed to coast the bike to and get off without spooking the typically shy heron. With the tree as cover I got my gear out of the commuter bags on the bike and attached the DZ 50-200 to the E-330. With the lens racked out to 200mm, I emerged slowly from behind the tree and began shooting. The heron almost immediately took to the air, but it flew around some and I was able to track it reasonably well, focusing manually for the most part. This was my favorite image from the set and I decided to use it as my Walt tribute because the circumstances reminded me of his story about how he got his nifty photo of the sleeping fox that he used in a previous TOPE entry.
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Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

Excellent! It would have been great if you got have gotten the heron a bit bigger in the picture, but that's nitpicking, as this is a fabulous shot, with very nice colours too! BTW: how did these yellows come about? Simply a matter of the golden hours?

Comment left by: The Photographer (no e-mail specified)

Thanks for you comment, Olaf. At 200mm (400mm in film terms), you're not going to breathe down a heron's neck. In addition, the final framing is also substantially cropped, so unfortunately that's as close as it gets without a blind and some big glass. The colors are indeed from morning light reflecting off the maples (which turn mainly yellow in the fall where I am). Thanks for all you do!

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