Sandhill Cranes

[Robert Amoruso]

Created at my Lake Clark National Park, AK workshop last month.

Interesting to see Sandhill Cranes on the beach with the bears. I normally only see them in Florida and NM. We saw these two around for the entire week I was there.

This is a stitched composite of three images. Two of them to get both birds on different planes in focus and the third to get the best bear OOF position.

Canon 1D Mark III
Canon 600mm
1/320 sec, f/4
Mode: Av
Metering: Evaluative
Exp comp: +3
ISO: 1600

[Randy Stout]

Robert:

Very interesting creation. I particularly like that the left bird is looking back towards the bear. I would be too:)
I didn't realize that the sandhills went that far north.

Simple appearing image, with lots of craft involved, but nice result.

What program did you use to stitch with?

Randy

[Robert Amoruso]

Nothing fancy on the stitch Randy. The three images each on a layer in PS. I then masked them together to get the stitch. With that sand it was a snap.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Interesting to say the least. I might want the bear not so oof. thats just my spin on what is a fine capture either way.

[denise ippolito]

Robert, Excellent PP work. I like the feather details on the cranes. The oof bear is a nice touch.

[Hendri Venter]

If anything I would have liked a lower angle but otherwise this is stunning. I agree with Denise, the OOF Bear a great touch.

[Arthur Morris]

I think that the choice of perspective here--standing--adds depth and compositional balance here. Lower might have been interesting too. Well done Robert.

[Troy Lim]

Amazing details on the feather details. Very nice shot. TFS.

[Craig Brelsford]

There must have been a reason for ISO 1600. I imagine the light was a bit low, which also must have made F/4 necessary. I'm bringing this up because without your explanation I probably would have known that the animal in the background is a bear, but perhaps not. I'm assuming that a narrower aperture, bringing the bear into sharper focus, was impractical or impossible given the conditions. Despite the limitations, I appreciate and admire your creativity in stiching the images together; much food for thought there. Also compelling is the very fact of sandhill cranes in Alaska, certainly not their core range.

[Robert Amoruso]

Thanks for the feedback all.

Artie,

I did make some low but the birds were not in pleasing positions. And since we were there to photograph the bears, I did not spend time on the birds to get those images.

Craig,

Rain and overcast required low shutter speeds, high ISO and large apertures. I did not even use teleconverters many times because of this. Even at 1/320nd, the bears moving are blurred. One thing I did do was create some less OOF BG bears for the stitch but ultimately did not like any of them due to their looking more like lumps the clean silhouettes so I ended up with this bear image used here as it was the best silhouette.

Since we, as a group were following the bears, I was only able to stop for a few moments to get what I could. I would agree that a title is needed to make the fact clear the creature in the BG is a bear.

Thanks for your observations.

[Craig Brelsford]

Yeah, the stars didn't quite align for you. You had the fascinating spectacle of bears and cranes near each other, but you didn't have the best light. Still, you hammered out a compelling image. I salute you.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Robert, this one's a winner. Well seen and executed. Brilliant stuff. Thx for sharing. Lots to learn from this shot.