Nature caught me by surprise this morning, as it tends to do. While I was in Maine for a long weekend, nearly two inches of rain fell across the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. When I returned to Shannondale Springs near Harpers Ferry, I found the Shenandoah higher than I’d ever seen it. The water had reached the boulder where I usually sit and wait, and the rock ledge where Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets hunt for fish was submerged, with only a small tree visible above it. The high water changed my usual approach to photographing birds. Rather than starting with a fairly neutral exposure and adjusting quickly as birds moved between backgrounds, I set my exposure for birds against the sky and was able to leave the settings alone. I came away with a couple of keepers. I’ll give the river time to settle before returning.
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