Three Shots I Wish I’d Taken

in the wild instead of at the Seattle Zoo.

Most shots I show from the various zoos I visit are of animals I have no chance of ever personally shooting, like Lions, and Tigers and Bears. I’m far too frugal to ever go to Africa or India, so I have no problem with shooting those animals at the zoo.

It’s only when it comes to birds that I manage to see and shoot regularly locally that I question whether I should photograph them, though in my imagination I think it would be fun to just put them on my page as if I’d managed to get a great shot in the wild.

It’s even more problematic when I already have several shots, just not nearly as good because it’s impossible to get as close in the wild. For instance, I’ve gotten some fairly good shots of eagles, but nothing nearly as good as this one where a platform allows you to get amazingly close to an Eagle’s nest.

Seattle Zoo Eagle

Here’s a shot of a pair of Tundra Swans, another bird I’ve glimpsed locally but have never managed to get a good shot of, though I hope to remedy that this winter.

Tundra Swans in Seattle Zoo

And, finally, here’s the best shot I’ve ever taken of a Green Heron, one I had almost as much trouble sighting in the Zoo’s pond as I’ve had sighting in the wild. Unfortunately, none of those I’ve sighted have ever had this magnificent of plumage,
probably because they were immature Green Herons.

Seattle's Green Heron

The last picture, particularly when seen full screen on my Apple Cinema Display, is probably as good of a picture as I’ve ever taken, or at least it seems that way to me, perhaps because I really like Green Herons after spending three years of trying to capture a good shot of them. I hope it would appeal to someone who’d never seen a Green Heron before and is unlikely to ever see one in nature.

Why don’t I feel nearly as attached to it as I do to the ones I took while out walking in the wild?

3 thoughts on “Three Shots I Wish I’d Taken”

  1. I love that shot of the swans! The balance of colors – green at the bottom, giving way to black, and the stark white birds in the foreground: wow.

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