I was at the island of Ameland when I saw the light becoming soft and orange in the evening. I often prefer photographing against it rather than making use of the light to lit the subject. I capture silhouettes and use the sky or the reflection on the water to create a dual-toned photo. In this case, a Grey heron was fishing in the water, that was completely without ripples due to the absence of wind. I anticipated the moment of 'darting' and took some shots with continuous shooting at high speed. The little explosion of water, with the sun reflected, makes this photo special.

Cheers,

Niels

Dear all,

one of the most exciting aspect of nature photography is the fact that nature is far from predictable and you can always expect something unexpected..... As I was photographing for Natura2000 in Kampina, I cycled along a path and in my eyecorner I saw a brown creature. I looked back and saw it was a Roe deer sitting next to the path, apperently not being frightened by my presence. I stopped and crawled back with my telelens. I could approach it up to a few meters! I was puzzled by this situation, but decided to change my lens for a wide angle and later for a macro. I was so close I could smell the animal and it even sniffed at my macro lens! It was totally relaxed and didn't seem ill, wounded or in pain, although I believe this behaviour would not have been performed by a normal Roe deer. I could take a shot of its eye, reflecting the surroundings...

Enjoy! Niels