I spent a few weeks driving around Florida visiting a number of state and national wildlife areas. Merritt Island is a large park that adjoins the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Having the high tech space center as a neighbor to the primitive park is a strange juxtaposition, but it works.

As I was driving along one of the park’s wildlife drives late one afternoon, I stopped many times to observe the different birds I saw along the way. This great egret was by himself and I thought made a nice contrast to the leaves. It was sunset, so the light was very warm.

I played with this image in post-production, adding contrast and saturation, then smoothing it down to give it a painterly effect.