Sandhill Crane Silhouette, take 2.

[Daniel Cadieux]

After photographing the crane calling out into the setting sun (posted last week) I kept to it and glad I did as when the sun completely disappeared below the horizon the reds in the sky became so deep and rich. I composed this one tighter in-camera by walking closer as the lower body was lost in the all-black setting below anyhow. I had never been closer than about 500 yards of a Sandhill Crane before visiting Indian Lakes Estates...where they just walk up to you as geese or mallards would in a city park! I felt like a kid in a candy store!!

Canon 7D + 100-400L @285mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1250s., f/5.6, ISO 400, handheld, FF.

[Jack Breakfast]

Me, I was a fat kid and always felt guilty in the candystore but that guilt mixed with candylust and alchemized into some kind of sweet and sinful combination? Actually I feel much the same way when I go out looking for birds, although I'm not as fat anymore. Moving on: this picture is beautiful. I love everything about it. It's right "up my alley" as the obnoxious saying goes, and thusly I have no criticisms to offer. A smart move you surely made when you continued shooting into the honeygold last light. Just wonderful, one of the most artful and evocative pictures I've seen in a very long while.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

I think the reflected sky in the water is what makes this esp. good for me. It gives me a bit more sense of depth to image, which is sometimes lost with silhouettes.

Shooting after sunset has so many possiblities.

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

I like this a lot, different, excellent color and is everything a silhouette should be.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, lovely mixture of colours in your sunset, and love how we can see the sky through the nostril in the bill. I do like the vertical comp, only way to have gone, but I would maybe take a bit off the bottom, where the front of the neck intersects the blacks of the grass.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Superb silhouette Daniel, love the rich colours and low angle you manage to get.

[Simon Wantling]

Beautiful photo Daniel. Love everything about it.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Peaches and cream! Beautiful image, gorgeous colours, the subtle receding background is ideal. The composition works well for me.

[Peter Seidel]

The background colors here are terrific. I think the silhouette is enhanced also because we see the small opening through the beak. If the angle were a bit different and the beak was just solid black, I don't think it would have the same impact. No sure how much room you have to work with - I might not crop quite as tight, but that's the only thing I'd (slightly) change.

Pete

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I like silhouettes and this one works for me, love that dark and dark red combined.