There are times as a wildlife photographer when it looks like everything is going to work out perfectly. Your subject, the weather, wind direction etc. all seem to be going your way. There is a little voice in the back of your mind that is jabbering about something, but you’re not paying attention. What could go wrong???

And then reality hits. You picked this spot based on your knowledge of the species you were after and also the anticipated weather conditions. And that was my downfall. I listened to the weatherman again. It just boggles my mind that with all the million dollar equipment they have available they still can’t forecast 12 hours ahead, let alone a whole day!!!

In this case I had set up thinking that I would have high clouds as my background, which would work perfectly with the nesting herons that I was hoping for. It was perfect at first. The birds were there going back and forth, busy building their nest. When the darkness began to fade and the sunrise began to light up the valley, it was absolutely gorgeous. High scudding clouds made a pattern that the sunrise just danced across and lit up beautifully. What a background for the birds! But as fast as that cloud cover showed up, it vanished like a bad dream. There was now a clear blue sky as my background. And what was worse was that when the sun finally popped up over the hill, it would be hitting me right in the face! But I wasn’t giving up yet. Maybe I could salvage something, at least for Facebook

The images that I took were not good. Below is the original image that came out of the camera and I think it needs a little work! Click on the image to enlarge

I figured that all of these images would end up in the scrap heap, and they probably will, but I was determined to see if I could salvage anything out of them. The compositions were beautiful and the birds did their part. So I massaged the heck out of the image and below is what I finally came up with.

Much better, but that background is a killer….

It’s still not a good image, but the pose is so perfect I had to take a crack at making something acceptable out of it. Even if I can’t, I can always blame the weatherman…..

I think the photo gods took pity on me and tried to make it up to me. Later on, when I was back at the truck and had all of my gear packed, I was in the car warming my fingers back to life when out of the cattails popped this little guy right in front of me!! So of course, all the gear had to come back out and get set up while trying not to scare him into the next county!

This is a male Pied Billed Grebe….. They’re pretty common up at Montezuma and Iroquois NWR….

All in all, it was great morning. But what a picture that would have been…..