Wildlife Photography: Patience, Patience, and Patience.

One of the things I love to do since I was a child is to observe wildlife in their habitat. I do not care to spend 4 to 5 hours (or more!) to quietly watch them. I remember my mother was so worried that I often disappear from her sight and later she found me watching a huge bullfrog or watching a poisonous snake quietly (somehow there were many snakes in the area where I grew up.), or watching any animals in the wild.
Since I started taking pictures of wildlife, I found that my weird habit of watching wildlife for hours is very useful. I wait for hours until the right moment comes for the purpose of fine art nature photography -- the moment that the composition, the lighting, the colors and the subject in the image contribute to make beautiful art on the wall.
For example, I've been looking for the right moment and place to take pictures of a great egret for days. And it took me 5 hours to get a shot of A Great Egret in Tranquility  on the day I found this egret.

I found a great egret eating food at Brazos Bend State Park. I didn't like the background -- so i decided to wait for his next action.

Luckily, the egret decided to move to the area where more clear water is in the swamp.

The egret stayed in front of a dark forest, looking into the swamp for a while. I'm sure he found prey in the water but for me he looked like he fell in love with the reflection of himself!

And the picture below is the one I was finally satisfied with. I could have gone with an image that involves more actions out of the egret, but I wanted to capture the quiet, silent water and forest with a very white egret quietly standing.

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The white plumage of a great egret seemed to glow in the middle of a quiet dark forest and the still water.

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