Glow
Tierra Verde, Florida
About ten minutes prior to sunset, I set up at the edge of a shallow saltwater pool that a variety of shorebirds had been frequenting. Lying flat on my stomach with the camera as low as possible on a ground-pod —essentially a frying pan shaped dish with a place to attach a tripod head— I knew there wasn't going to be enough light to catch any moving birds, since the sun was almost under the horizon and the best I could manage was about 1/400 of a second. I'd have to get a little bit lucky and have one of those birds stop in a good spot for enough time to permit a shot. And while I've struck out plenty of times in gorgeous conditions in the past, in this case, I wasn't disappointed! An absolutely stunning black-bellied plover stood right in front of me for about a minute, holding the same pose while surrounded by the purple and gold sunset glow. Why photograph shorebirds in Florida when we have the same species (more or less) in Canada? This shot is why!