I got lucky yesterday. I got my first opportunity to get a shot of a Great Blue Heron. I was sitting under a roof when he approached the pond and I was not visible to him until he landed and looked my way. I was doubly lucky because I already had my camera in my hand and pointed in the right direction. I managed to get 2 shots before he realized I was near. The down side of this lucky opportunity is that my 200mm lens is just not enough to capture fine details at that distance. This meant I had to do some digital manipulation of this image. In addition to boosting the sharpness and adjusting contrast details, I also blurred all the background because it was just too cluttered with all the vegetation growing on the side of the pond levee. I managed to get an image I was happy enough with, that I wanted to share my first image of this species - Ardea herodias - Great Blue Heron. My appreciation to all who took the time to comment on my last posting - Elegance of the Mundane. Lee