In the Field

Tree Ornaments. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 22, 2024.

I wrote this image commentary in mid-December of 2024 - not long before Christmas. Can you imagine just how big of a Christmas tree you'd need to accommodate these 3 Great Blue Heron tree ornaments? 😉 Yep, this was one very impressive tree!

Most wildlife photographers don't like pointing their lenses almost straight up to photograph a bird (or any other critter) high in a tree. And, at least somewhere along the line, we've been told or learned that a better approach is to back way off from the base of the tree and use a long lens (in an effort to reduce the angle "up" to the subjects and make the image look a little more "level" with the photographer). Well...I took that approach to close to its extreme by shooting this image using an 1120mm focal length. I got there by adding a 1.4x TC to a Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3S lens. And...well...it worked! These herons were WAY up in the tree, yet in this image there's almost no "shooting up" look to the shot. Lesson applied - and reinforced!

When Nikon Canada sent me a copy of the Z 800mm f6.3S to test back in July of 2022 I was skeptical that I would like or want the lens. But it didn't take too long before I found that I very much liked the lens and that it would be very useful for me. I tested the Z 800mm very extensively, including with the Z TC-1.4x (which gives you a total focal length of 1120mm). While I found the resulting 1120mm images to be "OK", they didn't thrill me (and I knew that the results I was seeing would mean I'd rarely use it in the field). Basically it was missing the biting sharpness that I want/need in a super-telephoto lens.

But...when DxO added a lens module to their PureRAW and PhotoLab image-processing applications for the Z9 and Z 800mm f6.3S combination (including a module for the camera/lens combo when the Z TC-1.4x is added to the mix) everything changed. Now I CAN get those tack-sharp images (including hand-held images) when using the TC-1.4x TC with the Z 800mm f6.3S! Five years ago who would have thought that we could get pro quality images shot hand-held at 1120mm? Amazing...

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of these stunning feathered tree ornaments:

• Tree Ornaments: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 7.9 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Into the Great Bear Rainforest Exploratory Photo Adventure in late September of 2024. Each year I offer trips into the Great Bear Rainforest as well as tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Tree Ornaments. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 22, 2024.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 9000.

Nikon Z9 paired with Z Nikkor 800mm f6.3S plus Z TC-1.4x (1120mm total focal length). Hand-held from a floating Zodiac inflatable boat. VR on in Sport mode. 3D-tracking AF area mode with subject detection set to "Birds" mode.

1/640s @ f9; -0.7 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Tree Ornaments. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 22, 2024.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 8.1 Elite (using the appropriate lens/camera optical module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Phase One's Capture One Pro (build 16.4.6). In the case of this image the global adjustments included a slight reduction in brightness (mid-tone exposure), a tweak to highlights, and a slight bumping up of the Blacks Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 5 separate layers, with most of the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to clarity, highlights, shadows, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Tree Ornaments. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 22, 2024.

Species Status in Canada*: This subspecies (Ardea herodias fannini) listed as of "Special Concern" in Canada.

While Great Blue Herons are distributed widely across North America, the fannini subspecies found west of the coastal mountains (in BC and the USA) has been showing significant population declines and now is represented by only approximately 8000 to 10,000 breeding pairs (with about half of those in BC).

The main factors threatening heron populations are nesting failure and reduced nesting productivity as a result of eagle predation, human disturbance and destruction of nesting and foraging habitats by residential and industrial development, road construction and logging.

In British Columbia, the Great Blue Heron, its nests and its eggs are protected by the province's Wildlife Act. The Great Blue Heron is protected by the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994. This Act prohibits the harming of birds, their nests or their eggs. No other recovery plan or action is currently in effect.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada