Sandhill Crane blur

All these great Bosque images made me go back over my files. On this early, early morning at the crane pools along the road, the line of photographers and tripods stretched from one end of the pools to the other! And just one person had binoculars (my husband!). One can only imagine the $$ represented by all that photo equipment:tinysmile_shy_t:.

This is an in-camera blur, however I had to extend canvas on the right and a bit on the top. I used Nik Viveza to bring out the colors in the clouds as I really liked the lines and wanted them to be an important part of the image.

Beautiful blur, Nancy. I especially like the wings on the lead crane and the fact that the back two have identical (and opposite) wing positions. Lovely colors also.:S3:

The background is absolutely beautiful. Nice job extending the canvas, too. It's great that it's pretty much only the wings that are blurred. That -- along with the lines in the background -- give a nice sense of motion. The negative space is wonderful. I started out really liking this, but it keeps getting better.

Love that background, Nancy!! The birds are beautifully captured. The crop is not typical, but i think it really works nicely here.

I agree with all the above, lovely background, wing positions....Very nice blur
I would have been really tempted to remove the second crane at the back but
thats just my taste.

Thanks all! If I didn't have have that interesting bit of sky in the upper left corner I would have cropped more from the entire left side, leaving more space in front than in back. So I agree this is a different sort of crop. Paul, I never thought of cloning away that back bird. Makes me think...

Hi Nancy, I love the early morning light on the hills and the sense of motion that is amplified by the wing blur. Nice how the heads are all sharp, gives a nice contrast to the wings. Well done!