Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
As mentioned in the previous post, we walked upstream along the Potomac River from Great Falls today. After about a mile on a trail down by the river, we returned to the towpath because a stream blocked our way. We could have returned to the river’s edge above the stream but we were ready to head back, anyway. A short way back towards Great Falls we saw this great blue heron (Ardea herodias) on the canal, posing very nicely for us. I like him (or her, I have no idea which) against the green of the duckweed on the surface of the canal.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the 150-600mm Sigma lens I got a couple years ago. It’s a lot to carry but it certainly allows me to get pictures that I wouldn’t get otherwise. This one was taken zoomed all the way out to 600mm, which when you multiply it by 1.6, gives an effective focal length of 960mm compared to a full-frame 35mm camera. This one was taken with the lens on a monopod, which is how I generally carry it. The exposure was 1⁄100 second at f/6.3.