Getting Ready Quickly....

[Arthur Morris]

I was just getting out of the car with the IPT group and was in the process of setting up the 800. I saw a single crane flying right at us into an empty corn field. I shouted "incoming." I got the lens on the tripod, turned the camera on, switched to Manual (exposure) mode, guessed the the right early morning light exposure, got the lens on the bird, and made five images just as the bird landed at just the right distance :) All were sharp. I added canvas and one primary tip left.

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400: 1/1600 at f/5.6. Central sensor rear focus AF.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

(My only wish is for a bit more separation between the end of the bill and the dark border of the secondaries on the far wing.)

[Troy Lim]

It is a great landing shot. Would adding more room on the bottom help this shot?

I am looking forward to be there. Leaving in the morning. My first Bosque trip, I am excited.

TFS.

[Arthur Morris]

I am fine with the framing. Do you have our Bosque Site Guide (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=72)?

[Troy Lim]

I am fine with the framing. Do you have our Bosque Site Guide (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=72)?

Thanks. Since what his name canceled on me, been doing a lot of research and a lot of fellow photographers have been helpful.
This is going to be a learning experience.

[Arthur Morris]

Who is what's his name and what did he cancel?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, this is wonderful. Getting ready for such a shot is so easier said than done. Your yrs of experience pays off in these situations, am sure. killer wing position. I see your point about the bill separation...but you will need a 25+ fps camera to avoid such things :-) or great luck :-)

[Alan Murphy]

Artie, you get faster the older you get. Great photography.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks. ... a lot of fellow photographers have been helpful.
This is going to be a learning experience.

Just for the record books, getting a copy of the Bosque Site Guide (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=72) would make your first visit seem like your 16th year in a row. Why? I share all of my Bosque secrets: where to be on what wind with what sky conditions and when. For example, on the last two days of my recent trip there were three folks, all excellent photographers, leading major groups. Each of them consistently had their groups in the wrong spot.... All that they had to do was purchase the guide and they would have been in the right spots. And best of all I will be sending an update within a few days.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

I guess if this were like in an figure skating contest you'd get a 6.0 in both categories, technical execution and artistic presentation. :)

Love the colors especially...

Best, Joerg

[Sid Garige]

Fantastic wing position Artie. Great details.

[Craig Brelsford]

Artie, great image, especially considering your quick work to get it. I can discern some Photoshop fingerprints around the primary tip left, but I probably wouldn't have noticed had I not known that you'd added canvas. What if you showed us a bit more of the ground on which the crane's about to land?

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, great image, especially considering your quick work to get it. What if you showed us a bit more of the ground on which the crane's about to land?

More room below would be a nice option for a landing bird but the up and down framing is as captured :)

Thanks all for your kind words. I like it too :)

[Chris Martinez]

I can see some kind of weird halo type thing around the Primaries on the right wing(left of frame) Kind of like when you spill coffee on paper and the edge has more colour than the center of the spill. I can see it on four of the five longer feather tips(top to bottom).

I love the look in the birds eye as it judges its landing. Perfect moment!!!

[Kiran Poonacha]

beautiful feel here guru..

[Humberto Ramos]

Love the composition, next couple weeks, Eurasian Cranes become to arrive to spain and Portugal, near my zone, hope this year I can make some nice shots as this one...just begum nature photography this year, but i'm really excited and trying to do always better...

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for the suggestions. As it turned out, my memory was a little off :) As you can see in the original here, I did not clip any primary tips but did need to add canvas, and I did have a bit more below that I opted to crop out as the corn stalks were a bit more defined along the bottom frame edge.

[Arthur Morris]

Next I redid the optimized TIFF to deal with the Photoshop fingerprints that Craig mentioned. I think that the repost here is an improvement :) Thanks Craig.

[Arthur Morris]

As for the halo type thing that Chris mentions, I am a bit confused as the primary feathers were untouched in all of the images posted above.

In this Pane is a tight crop of the primaries in the original capture.

[Arthur Morris]

And in this pane is a similar crop from the optimized TIFF. To me the edges of the primary tips look pretty much identical.... What do you think?

[James Salywoda]

Nice landing pose and I really like the bg captured in this shot as its a beautiful color.

[Chris Martinez]

I can only see the anomaly in the very first image. The following four images do not show the weirdness!!! How peculiar??? I guess it's no longer an issue. Perhaps it never was.......:confused:

[Craig Brelsford]

Artie, I'm trying to figure out whether I'd rather learn from you in the field or in front of the computer. You're a master of both realms. Great clean-up work on the Photoshop fingerprints. In the shot in Post 17, virtually all traces are gone.

[Arthur Morris]

I can only see the anomaly in the very first image. The following four images do not show the weirdness!!! How peculiar??? I guess it's no longer an issue. Perhaps it never was.......:confused:

No sweat. We are all doing our best all the time. Halos around the feathers were never an issue for me :)

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, I'm trying to figure out whether I'd rather learn from you in the field or in front of the computer. You're a master of both realms. Great clean-up work on the Photoshop fingerprints. In the shot in Post 17, virtually all traces are gone.

Thanks Craig. You'd learn different stuff in each place.... Thanks for your help in improving this image. As I say often, I do NOT have a great eye for fine detail and I am here to learn too :)

[DustinFinn]

Is this a situation where the head angle doesn't matter as much because of the expressive and beautiful wing span ?

Great work as always - just noticed so many people comment on head angle and then its not mentioned here at all in this thread...

[Arthur Morris]

Dustin, I am fine with the head angle here with the incoming subject. The bird's head is on perfectly straight :) What bugs me a bit is the slight merge with the dark band of the secondaries.

That said I would not mind it if the bird had been looking right down the lens barrel at me.....

[Arthur Morris]

Love the composition, next couple weeks, Eurasian Cranes become to arrive to spain and Portugal, near my zone, hope this year I can make some nice shots as this one...just begum nature photography this year, but i'm really excited and trying to do always better...

My best advice would be to get copies of ABP and ABP II (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=84) and study them hard. GOod luck with your nature photography:)