Image Focus

I live just south of Stockholm, Sweden. It is a busy capital city, like any other in Europe, but if you take the commuter train north for 10 minutes, you’ll come across lake Råstasjön where I took this shot.

Even in cities, people are close to wildlife, but sometimes we are so close that we walk straight past and don’t give it any thought. Through my photography, I want to show that we have these places on our doorstep and you don’t have to travel for days to get in touch with nature.

I took this photo with my Sony Alpha 9 II and FE 400mm f/2.8 G Master lens in the heart of winter. The location looks great throughout the season – you get a flat, white and grey, snowy landscape which works well with the colour of the Grey Heron.

The first of a few key features of my Alpha 9 II that helped me capture this shot was Autofocus Tracking. The interesting thing about this image is that the dramatic-looking dark sky at the top is actually out of focus tree branches from a tree I was standing under. With the Alpha 9 II Autofocus Tracking, I know I only need to follow the bird in flight and even if the odd branch gets in the way, the bird will still be in focus. It’s this sort of camera feature that makes my job as a photographer seamless, as I can simply point and shoot with the knowledge that my Sony Alpha will do the hard work of focusing for me.

The second feature that was integral to getting this shot was the blackout-free viewfinder, which helped me to always see where the bird was whilst shooting. When you hold your finger down on the shutter button and take a burst of shots at up to 20fps. There is no blinking or freezing up with the Alpha 9 II; you always see exactly how the image will be through the viewfinder, and that is useful for shots like this where you are following something whilst also shooting through tree branches.

I knew I wanted to have a very shallow depth of field that would blur the background to remove things I didn’t like from the shot, so I used an f/2.8 aperture with the 400mm f/2.8. The depth of field is a few centimetres, meaning the head of the heron and any snow that has fallen are in the same focal plane. The snow outside of the focus plane gets blurred and enlarged, helping to create the stormy effect you see.

I love this image as it shows people that getting away from the daily hustle to go outside and have some time for relaxation in nature doesn’t always need a lot of effort. And, travelling with my trusty Sony Alpha 9 II means I can continue to showcase the wonders of nature in our cities for years to come!