HIGHLY COMMENDED CATEGORY NATURE OF “DE LAGE LANDEN”
Bas van Laarhoven | Faint egret

Name: Bas van Laarhoven
Picture title:  Faint egret
Category: Nature of “De Lage Landen”
Nationality: the Netherlands
Occupation: Another occupation at Philips Healthcare in Best

Technical information
Camera: Canon 5D mark IV
Lens: Canon 5D mark IV
EXIF: 1/125 sec at f5.6 (+1,67 e/v)   ISO 200
Accessories: Tripod 

Bas van Laarhoven says:

On a cold and foggy morning, I went to the Oisterwijkse forest and fens nature reserve (Northern Brabant, the Netherlands) in the hope to photograph some nice landscapes and birds. From a photographic point of view, I am very fond of these woods and fens when it is foggy. There is then a mysterious atmosphere that in my experience fits very well with the landscape. I’m certainly not a bird photographer, but I do like to use them as subjects in a landscape photos. It was quite foggy that morning when I spotted this hunting egret along the side of the Witven (one of the many fens in this area). It was quite difficult to focus properly on the egret. I chose to put him in the picture very small because I think that often produces a strong image. I also corrected the exposure by one two-thirds stop, to maintain sufficient brightness in the image. I could keep the shutter speed (and thus the ISO value) relatively low (1/125 sec) because the egret hardly moved. In the end, I chose to place the egret at the bottom right of the image, because the walking and looking direction of the heron was to the left.