Great Blue Heron at Sunrise

    When I go on vacation I have these two competing interests… photography… and sleep. :)  I always tell myself that I’m going to get up early and go find some cool things to take pictures of while the light is good… and then the alarm goes off and I quickly decide that maybe the following day would be a better day to get up. 

    Our recent trip to Sandestin, Florida was no exception.  I woke up one morning and looked out the window to see that it looked very rainy out… so instead of chancing it I just hopped back in bed.  The next day, however, I got up and made my way down to the bay.  When I got there I was rewarded with this awesome Great Blue Heron.  The bird was very patient with my picture taking and posed for me for about 15 minutes.  Very cool stuff, and definitely worth getting up early for!

–Dan Thompson