Great Egret Catch

I like the capture you managed on this Patrick. Unfortunately, the whites on the top of the bird have lost most of the detail. When I shoot these all white birds, I normally will move my exposure down by about - 2/3. With the slow SS you had, you could have easily compensated for it by opening your aperture more...maybe f/6.3 or so. I find that large of an aperture is platy for these large birds unless you are right on top of them.

Patrick,
I agree with Kurt. When shooting white birds I "generally" compensate at least -2/3 and most of the time i compensate -1 1/3 to start. The top of the wings are completely blown out. Not unusual at all considering the light is from behind this bird and there was no compensation. I swear those feathers are like reflecting sheilds. Best to shoot white birds on cloudy days as a rule or as early or as late in the day as possible. Light is not as harsh then.
Trying to get a bird in flight at 1/320 of a second is pretty difficult without getting some sort of motion blur or camera blur. I would have bumped my ISO up to about 500 or more to try and get some more shutter speed. You did pretty well regardless here Patrick. It's a nice capture with the bird at a nice angle with prey in it's beak. This is just a suggestion....These birds are so plentiful that you could spend an hour or so just playing around with settings and see what you get. Do the same thing with some black birds like crows or other plentiful birds that are very dark. Your setting will be completely different for those two opposites. You litterally can compensate minus two or three full stops on the snowies and see what that does to the image. Also, play around with your ISO and see what that does to your shutter speed. Like Kurt, I tend to reserve small apertures for those times when I am shooting with a TC or I am right on top of a bird. Otherwise I would open up some more to give you more shutter speed. That way you will have an idea of what to expect when that killer opportunity comes right at you. Just a suggestion though. Would love to find some time to get together with you and Eric and Harry. The Western and Clarks Grebes should be running in January all the way through April if they double or triple clutch like they did last year. I'm still not able to get out all that often although my wife is making progress. It's just a really long road. I hope you are blessed with with great health and terrific light next year Patrick. I believe I will be at Lake Hodges tomorrow morning shooting with a friend from Apple Valley. Would love it if you could get down there. Might want to let Harry and Eric know as well. We could meet at the tennis courts and hike in from there. If you come bring plenty of water because we will be doing some hiking and it's going to be about 85 degrees tomorrow. Call me or e-mail if you need directions.

David and Kurt,
Thank you for the detailed instruction. I am enormously grateful.

David, I did not see this message today. I would love to shoot with you again. Sorry I missed the opportunity 12/30.