Sandhill Crane

[Geoffrey Montagu]

I captured this image last month in Harns Marsh, Florida. We were standing on a berm when out of the corner of my eye spotted two Sandhill Cranes gliding in for a landing, just over our heads. They proceeded to touchdown a short distance away. As Bill Dix had pointed out in a previous image he posted, we were so close with the long lenses we had to backup, but if we had taken another step it would be into a canal. No time to remove the TC. C&C welcome.

D4S, Nikon 500mm f4/G + 1.4 TC, 1/800, f 6.3, ISO 800, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley Gimbal head.

Geoffrey




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[Frank Schauf]

Nice pose and fantastic background.

[Isaac Grant]

You guys cleaned up in Florida. Happy for you. I saw quite a few of these but no shots that I am really happy with. I like the pose and the background very much. I did a version where I did the following.

Took a little of the out of focus stuff on the bottom off and added that to the top. Then I moved the bird a little right and added that room to the left. I ran some NR to the background as well which you could of course add a little more or less to. Bird had a slight green cast that I removed. Also brightened the whole image a little. Easy fixes for an otherwise very appealing shot.

Edit: I went back and took out the repeating patterns. Bills comment below pertains to the old version that I originally posted.

[Bill Dix]

A handsome shot of this handsome bird. Great pose and lovely feather detail; nice clean BG from the eye-level POV. Isaac's repost brings it up a notch, although there are a few obvious repeats that could be removed.

[annmpacheco]

Super nice Geoffrey. I like Issac's repost, except: I like the canvas above, (killer bokeh) but the bottom leaves me with perhaps shortened crane feet... not sure exactly, but certainly more like "tight shoes..." Yes, you had a great FL trip with lots to savor; my turn soon!

[Isaac Grant]

Of course if you wanted to you could either take a bit less off of the top to leave more room at the bottom or could leave the same room on the bottom and add some canvas to the top depending on taste. I just wanted to show that some minor tweaks would like removing the color cast and moving the bird in the frame would have a nice and positive impact on the already nice photo.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

You guys cleaned up in Florida. Happy for you. I saw quite a few of these but no shots that I am really happy with. I like the pose and the background very much. I did a version where I did the following.

Took a little of the out of focus stuff on the bottom off and added that to the top. Then I moved the bird a little right and added that room to the left. I ran some NR to the background as well which you could of course add a little more or less to. Bird had a slight green cast that I removed. Also brightened the whole image a little. Easy fixes for an otherwise very appealing shot.

Edit: I went back and took out the repeating patterns. Bills comment below pertains to the old version that I originally posted.

Thanks Isaac, and thank you for your input, and your version in this repost. I agree with removing the slight green cast, but with the exception of moving the bird a bit to the right, I like the the level of brightness in my original ( this was captured as the clouds passed overhead ), plus I also like the foreground and BG in my original, for that was also the light level at time of exposure.

Geoffrey




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[Geoffrey Montagu]

Super nice Geoffrey. I like Issac's repost, except: I like the canvas above, (killer bokeh) but the bottom leaves me with perhaps shortened crane feet... not sure exactly, but certainly more like "tight shoes..." Yes, you had a great FL trip with lots to savor; my turn soon!

Thanks much, Ann. I'm still laughing from your comment "tight shoes". Yes it was a super great FL trip. The birds will be waiting for you.

Geoffrey




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[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, I have a special fondness for Sandhill Cranes. I think your original post worked just fine. Thank you for sharing, Geoffrey.

[Lorant Voros]

Nice low angle shot. I prefer the 2nd version for the composition. TF.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks everyone.

Geoffrey




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