Most of my photography is done with available light. I have experimented with flash photography resulting in some astonishing pictures but it seems to take away from the natural look. When I first started shooting nature I was just glad to get an animal in the frame and for it to be fairly sharp. As my skills progressed I tried to get more interesting shots with the animals in different settings and positions. Then I discovered lighting. I found that it can make or break a photo. The same photo of a bird taken in the bright sun in the middle of the day with the sun shining directly on the bird will usually be a poor photo. There will be hardly any color or contrast and the bird will just blend into the background. Take the same bird shot with low sun early in the morning or late evening and the photo will look entirely different with brilliant colors and the bird will stand out from the background. Another way to make the subject stand out is backlighting or side lighting the subject using a dark background. I recently learned this technique from my son Ray. Recently I was on a dock shooting a Royal Tern (seen in the photo above)that was perched on a post out in the water. I took a couple of shots from the position I was at on the dock as soon as it landed on the post. The sun was to the side of the bird and the background was the brightly lit water. I reviewed the shots on the camera and I realized the bird hardly showed up. I then looked beyond the Tern and saw an island with dark trees just to the right of the bird. I moved about 15 feet to the left until I aligned the Tern with the darker background and took more shots. What a difference, the bird really popped out in the photo. The photos I have posted show different types of lighting with available light. They show side lighting and backlighting with dark backgrounds plus some with first light in the morning and just low sun light. A few were taken just after sunrise or just before sunset and have the gold tint of the sun.

Sunset Buck

Tufted Titmouse

Snowy Egret, low sun

Piping Plover

Killdeer

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Female White-tailed Deer

Cattle Egret

Great Blue Heron

Black Skimmer

Anhinga