Artie Shooting West at Bosque

Shot this back in Nov at Bosque, not sure how many years Artie has shot there but from the look on his face all week and the stories he told you could tell the place honestly holds a special place in his heart. I don't normally do composites but I really like the way this one went together. The cranes were shot with a 7DII & 100-400II one evening then the wide shot of Artie and the mountains were done one morning with a 5DIII- 16-35 incamera HDR. The cranes were first converted in DPP then brought into the one from the 5D then just a small amount of Nik color efex pro detail was applied and then Nik define was ran just across the sky. Along with a frame filter. Hope you enjoy.
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Just simply "WOW"

A terrific "classic" Bosque image! Beautiful sunset glow and colors over the entire scene. The curved part of the water leads into the image nicely and the cloud reflections add to the lovely balance between top and lower layers. Sandhill cranes appear to be well integrated into the image and are arranged nicely across the sky. Good framing to include that lone tree on the right, and to have that be a focal point for the line of cranes. In spite of Artie usually being larger than life, I did have to look a bit to find him :S3:. Glad to have you posting here in OOTB!

It's good to see you here in OOTB, and I really like how you composed the scene. The colors are beautiful, too. A couple suggestions if you don't mind . . . With that bright sunrise, I'd expect the undersides of the cranes to be lit, and some of the cranes might be reflected in the water. I selected the cranes, moved the selection down, copied the lower part of the sunrise color in the sky, pasted it over the cranes in Color Dodge blend mode and masked it off the upper surfaces of the cranes. The reflections were done with a vertical flip of the non-colored selected cranes in Multiply blend mode and masking to remove the ones that wouldn't have been reflected.


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Very nice. Thanks for your kind words. Best suggestion for improvement: get rid of the photographer... a

Very nice scene, with the birds being a great idea that is well done! And a great touch by Dennis!

I wish both artie and the tree weren't so close to the edge -- wouldn't be hard to add canvas on both sides, then just stretch the frame layer.

Beautiful scene. I see why photographers like Bosque. Excellent work, Dennis.

Beautiful. Love the reflections of the sky in the curving river. The reflection of the cranes that Dennis added makes it even more special.

This is a fantastic Bosque scene! The colors are spectacular and you did a great job compositing the cranes. I like Dennis' additions too.

Great job on a super subject, too bad about the old guy with the tripod. :D Bosque is indeed a magical place that gets into your blood and your head and you must keep going back... Great concept and execution, love the colors and mood. Nice edit by Dennis. I hope you post here more often Joe!