Motions of A Great Blue Heron at Great Falls / September 1, 2026 by Todd Henson

A flurry of colorful motion as a great blue heron takes flight, as seen with a slow shutter speed.

Most times I’ve photographed birds, and birds in flight, I’ve opted for fast shutter speeds to capture as much detail as possible. But sometimes it’s fun to slow everything down and allow motion blur into the finished photograph. The two photos in this post are examples of this. They were created at Great Falls on the Potomac River as viewed from the Maryland side. Both were at 440mm and a fairly small aperture of f/16, giving me a shutter speed of 1/30 of a second. This allowed a very nice amount of blur when the great blue heron took flight.

With a slow shutter speed, a flying great blue heron can take on a ghostly appearance.

In one case I held the camera fairly still, keeping the rocks mostly in sharp focus. But in the other the tripod head was more loose and the camera moved, making the rocks look softer and out of focus, though not as much as the heron. I love the beautiful gradations of blue and gray, and the bright whites and dark blues resulting from the different colored feathers of the heron. It’s also interesting seeing the bits of blurred yellow and orange from its feet.

I think there’s a lot of potential in this style of photography to create some interesting and pleasing images. And it could easily be applied to many different genres, not just wildlife photography, but to anything that moves. Have you ever intentionally used slower shutter speeds to capture motion blur? How did it turn out? And if not then give it a go one of these days.

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Photographing Birds on an Overcast Morning / February 14, 2023 by Todd Henson

An overcast sunrise over the Potomac River as seen from Leesylvania State Park

In late January my father and I picked Leesylvania State Park as our destination for a morning nature hike. We’d not been to that location in a while and there was the chance we might see some of the wintering over tundra swans closer to shore. We struck out as far as that goes. We didn’t see or hear a single tundra swan. But we did see a number of interesting birds.

None of these are stellar examples of bird photography. It was a grey overcast morning and the light was sometimes very uninteresting. In many cases I didn’t nail the focus. In most there is noticeable noise if you look closely enough. But none of this stopped us from enjoying a sunrise hike and taking advantage of the opportunity to observe and photograph some birds. Not every outing will result in stunning photography, but every outing can be an opportunity to practice photography, to practice identifying bird species, and to enjoy the simple act of getting together and going for a walk in nature.

Bufflehead Ducks

The first bird we noticed was a male bufflehead duck swimming in the waters just inside some rocks nearest to shore. Before long we realized there were two buffleheads, a male and female.

A pair of bufflehead ducks swimming in the morning — The male bufflehead has now joined a female

Great Blue Heron

When we began walking along the sandy river shore we spooked a great blue heron that had been standing in the waters near shore. I managed to capture an image of the heron as it flew away.

Many Different Ducks

There were many groups of ducks in the distance, some at a very great distance. When I got home I was able to identify some. I believe there were ruddy ducks, which are fairly small and often swim with their tail sticking up. There were the buffleheads we saw above. The largest of the ducks were, I believe, canvasbacks. And I think there might have been some scaup. I suspect they were greater scaup but I they might have been lesser. Let me know if you’re good at identifying duck species and know for certain what some of these are.

A grouping of ducks swimming in the distance — I think the larger of these ducks are canvasbacks. The medium sized ones may be scaup, possibly greater scaup. And the smallest may be a couple of ruddy ducks.

Ruddy ducks, scaups and buffleheads — The two smallest ducks on the left are ruddy ducks. The male bufflehead is on the right and the female just left of center. I believe the larger ducks are scaup, possibly greater scaup.

A group of what I believe are canvasback ducks taking flight.

Four ducks flying just above the surface of the water — I’m always entertained by how close some birds fly to the surface of the water.

Five ducks in flight over the surface of the water — Here we see five of the ducks, which I think are canvasback, flying over the surface of the river.

Downy Woodpecker

When we’d left the shore and followed the trail inland we noticed a flash of red while on a boardwalk over a marshy area. It turned out to be a single male downy woodpecker.

A slow shutter speed shows the motion of a downy woodpecker while pecking — A slower shutter speed shows the motion of the downy woodpecker while pecking

Brown Creeper

Then I noticed movement on a tree, almost as if the bark were moving. Brown creepers can be easy to miss if they’re not moving, but thankfully they are often moving. They’re much easier to see when they turn to the side so you can see their profile. That white stomach stands out much better than their camouflaged brown back.