As our day on the white sands of Tortuga Bay in the Galapagos Islands came to an end, we walked back along the black lava tidal pools, again keeping a close eye out for the unique wildlife that surrounded us. As we checked out the marine iguanas warming themselves on the rocks, Kevin spotted something. “That looks like some sort of bird over there on the rocks,” he said. There was no movement at all, and it took us several seconds to figure out whether or not we were just seeing things.
This lava heron blended in well with the lava rocks, and he stood motionless as he stalked the small fish swimming beneath him in the tide pool. The Galapagos Lava Heron was hunting. We only had to wait a minute or two before a fish got within range.
In a single motion, the lava heron struck, plunging into the water, and the next instant, emerging with an unfortunate fish in his mouth.
Foto Friday is a series where I go back through my archives to share photos that I love either because I think they are beautiful or they have an interesting story. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Amazing action shots. How much zooming was involved?
Thanks, Steph! It was taken at 200mm (using our 18-200mm lens). What kind of camera are you taking on your upcoming trip?
I’m actually having some angst about that at the moment. I have a 4-year-old Canon S5 10mp point-and-shoot for still images and a GoPro Hero2 for video. Been second-guessing lately whether that’s good enough. Probably going to write a blog post about it in the next week or so and perhaps you’d like to weigh in on the subject then.
Really whatever you are comfortable using and will take the most photos with will be best, but I’ll look forward to reading it! And a GoPro, nice! I’ve just recently learned about these, I’ve never done video beyond 30 second segments with my phone. Can’t wait to see what you do with it!
Awesome photos . . ..