This short article features an egret simultaneously catching 2 fish and dropping 1 while fishing at Grindstone Creek in Hendrie Valley. All of the photographs were captured handheld using Pro Capture H technology.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

I had been watching this egret fish for a while with most of its successes being with individual, small fish. It wasn’t until I noticed that it had caught 2 larger fish simultaneously that my interest piqued.

My E-M1X was set for Pro Capture H in anticipation of photographing the egret flipping a fish in mid-air to properly align it in its beak so it could swallow it head first.

As the egret contemplated how it was going to devour its catch, I fired off successive Pro Capture H runs of 15 images. I used my standard Pro Capture H settings with my Pre-Shutter Frames and Frame Limiter both set to 15. I used a small, single auto-focus point and used a frame rate of 60 frames per second.

A number of years ago I had photographed a great blue heron which had simultaneously captured 2 fish.  This was the first time I had the opportunity to photograph an egret doing so.  Unlike the great blue heron which ended consuming both fish after dropping one, the egret lost its second fish.

Let’s have a look at 12 consecutive images of the egret catching 2 fish and dropping 1.

Being able to photograph the egret catching 2 fish and dropping 1 was an interesting ‘slice of life’ moment. The 12 consecutive photographs of the egret losing its second fish were captured in a total of 1/5 of a second.

One of the things that I absolutely love about my E-M1X is being able to capture these types of ‘precise moment’ photographs with confidence and consistency by using Pro Capture H technology.

Technical Note:

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard approach in post. Images were resized for web use. I used my typical settings for Pro Capture H with my Pre-Shutter Frames and Frame Limited both set to 15. A small, single auto-focus point was used, along with a frame rate of 60 frames-per-second. This is the 1,208 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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