Cranes a' Landin'

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Shot December of last year at a pond between a Publix and a USPS! It was a pretty dry season in FL, so the cranes didn't stay at their usual locations. They were spooked easily, so all shots were handheld out of the passenger seat of my car. I never got a chance to process these, so there might be quite a few cranes over the next couple of days.

I decided to go with the cinema crop 16:9 aspect ratio. NR throughout, brought up some details in the shadows, lightened about a 1/4 of a stop, resized, and sharpened for web.

Nikon d300s | 70-200 + 2X
400 mm | 1/320" | f/7.1 | ISO 200

Comments, critiques and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated

[Alan Murphy]

Nice detail and light.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Miguel, lovely light which has brought out the warm colours on the cranes nicely. Great to see right through their nostrils. Comp works fine with both cranes evenly spaced in the frame, and as you probably know, better wing positions woud have been first prize, even though they are landing.:w3

[David Salem]

Nice comp on this shot. Light is warm and the techs look good too. Good Job.

David

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love these guys and getting a good flight duo would be nice . I like the light and the mirrored poses.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Always fun to photograph from the comfort of your vehicle eh! Nice simple image design and the pano crop works. I know they were gliding in but a better wing position for both birds would have been ideal though (straight up or down)...

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Thanks for the comments! I think the only way I would get the straight up or down wing position would be on take-off. With that said, they have a great landing wing position where they fully extend their 'flaps'. However, I would be shooting into a ditch on that one so the angle wasn't great and the bg would have been very busy. I can't wait to try again this upcoming winter!

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the lighting, exposure and composition. Nice image Miguel.

[Arthur Morris]

The pancake wing position only works if they are flying right at you or at least at a healthy angle towards you.... And that is a factor of wind and light direction.... Ditto all the pluses above.