Another Sandhill (FL)

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Will all of the shots of Sandhill Cranes from Bosque, I can't help but post some from the cow pasture here in Gainesville, FL. The opportunities aren't the same ... Instead of mountains in the bg, I have fences. I only have about a 20 minute window where they all come in from their sleeping spot, and I only hope that the sun comes over the tree line before all of the cranes are in. With all of that said, I absolutely love the experience. Nothing like the loud, rattling sound they make!

This one was shot through a little bit of fog. It's a fairly heavy crop (I'll post the original on another thread), and I had to clone out some other cranes and fences in the bg.

Shooting info
Nikon D800 | 500 f/4 VR | 1.4x
1/2500" | f/5.6 | ISO 1600


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[Miguel Palaviccini]

And here is the original

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hi Miguel, good work getting rid of the fence and cranes. This one would have worked better if the feet were showing. You need to figure out how to get in closer, not sure that possible TFS.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Wow, nice final image thanks to your excellent skills in PP. It must have required a lot of work to do this in PP, but the results were certainly worth it! Great light and wonderful texture & details in the fluffed feathers.

[Mike Landwehr]

Miguel, considering the environment you have to work with, you've created a very nice end-product. I like what you have done in eliminating the distractions, and love the vertically spread wings on the standing crane--I think that is an unusual stance. It would help if you could raise or lower the horizon line, but don't see any way to do so at that spot. I suspect that a tall stepladder might spook the cranes!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Hi Miguel, good work getting rid of the fence and cranes. This one would have worked better if the feet were showing. You need to figure out how to get in closer, not sure that possible TFS.

Vivaldo, I wish I could get closer, but unfortunately there is a fence right in front of me. I stand on an old tree stump to help me get a view over the fence.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Wow, nice final image thanks to your excellent skills in PP. It must have required a lot of work to do this in PP, but the results were certainly worth it! Great light and wonderful texture & details in the fluffed feathers.

Dennis, thanks for the compliments, but surprisingly it wasn't that much work in PP. I selected the top portion of the crane (the part that I wanted to not be affected), put it on a new layer, and then made a blank layer sandwiched in between the crane and bg layer. I then used the clone stamp tool at 40% to remove the distractions. The selection of the wings was fairly straightforward due to the contrast with the sky (I used the color selection tool - I think that's what it's called).

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Miguel, considering the environment you have to work with, you've created a very nice end-product. I like what you have done in eliminating the distractions, and love the vertically spread wings on the standing crane--I think that is an unusual stance. It would help if you could raise or lower the horizon line, but don't see any way to do so at that spot. I suspect that a tall stepladder might spook the cranes!

Mike, I absolutely agree! I wish I could be a lot lower, but there is a fence in my way. A step ladder would be neat, but I don't know I how I would get my tripod to work up there. Not sure I can HH the 500 for too long. I need to find someone with a large pickup truck that will let me use the bed as a base! The stance was neat, just after it had landed and was gaining balance.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Large crop, but you still are left with lot of details. nice camera. IQ looks quite good for the crop and ISO.

Loved the pose. good job with the cloning. You've handled the side light also pretty well. Tad more room below would have helped.

[Satish Ranadive]

Miguel:
Very nice pose captured.I like the side lights,nice eye contact and BG. Well done.

Regards,
Satish.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice landing pose, love the wing position and feather details, Miguel.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love the wings here. I was quite surprised at the original. That was alot of work you did and you did well

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Miguel, well timed for the landing, and I like the eye contact. You have done well with removing the distractions, and this is one species I would like to capture one day.