It’s not easy getting close to herons in this area, so when I came around the corner and saw this one standing on the sand bar, I immediately froze, then very slowly approached, trying to keep my silhouette as frozen-looking as possible. I loved the gulls walking around the foreground, the water level. What I was missing was decent lighting. I love simplicity in photographs and along the water will often wait for the rare occasions on which the water is still so the water isn’t a distracting element. In this case, my composition was rather simple, but the colour due to the lighting was unattractive and distracting … so I removed it. This is a matter of personal taste, but though I typically love how colour can complement an image, in this case, loved the result of the rare photo processing I did.