Mark Kriedemann, Diminishing Returns (ENTRIES CLOSED - February theme: Wild)

A Pied Stilt catches a tiny fish from a inch-deep lake in the Coombabah Lakelands on the Gold Coast of Queensland. After a long dry spell (despite the humidity), the lake retreated so far that less than a third of it's usual surface was covered with water. While this meant catching fish became easier, it meant that those fish became smaller and smaller as the stocks were depleted. To capture this shot, I hid in the thick vegetation by the shore for half an hour or so. This meant the stilts began to ignore my presence and approach the deeper part of the lake near where I was positioned. I then waited for one of them to strike so I could capture the moment it caught one of the small remaining fish.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.