Sanhill Crane

[adambaca]

http://files.me.com/adambaca/nxp5qf

Canon 50d, 300mm f/2.8 + 1.4x @ f/4, 1/1600

I took this shot last weekend. Going down to the Bosque just never gets old. I better head to bed as I'm going again in the morning. I just got a Wimberley Sidekick so I'm excited to try it out. Comments and criticism welcome and very much appreciated.

--Adam

[Juan Aragonés]

I like the nice light, the pose of wings and the fantastic open beak ( I almost can hear the calling of the crane!). The overlaping of the head and left wing is not great but the fact that the head is iluminated and the wing is in shadow reduces the overlaping effect. I might give more room at the left of the image because the composition is a bit tight at the left. Sidelight works very well here because most of the shadow areas are not visibles. Good job and keep them coming

Welcome on board :-)

[Randy Stout]

Adam:
Good advice from Juan. I agree about the head/wing merge issue.

The point of critical focus looks to be on the near wing, as it is noticeably sharper than the head. Cranes are tough, they are so long, and the head is a small target compared to the wings/body, that I have many images where this has happened, despite being aware of the issue. Depending on your camera, you can play around with the focus point pattern used to help this issue. If you are really good, single point auto focus on the head works great, but I have trouble consistently getting that shot.

Cheers

Randy