On May 11, 2014, two months into the nesting season, the weather was terrible: mist, blustery winds, and heavy overcast. To make matters worse, I forgot my tripod at home. To get something out of the 90 mile trip, I tried shooting handheld by cranking up the ISO on my D4S and shooting with Nikon’s 800mm lens wide open at f5.6. The high ISO capabilities of the Nikon D4S are nothing short of phenomenal. I picked up some noise in the shadows, but nothing that the “reduce noise” filter in Photoshop couldn’t handle. Cattle egrets are among the more docile inhabitants of the rookery. They’re near the bottom of the pecking order.
