Sandhill Cranes at sunset - Bosque

[Dennis Zaebst]

I took this at last light at Bosque Del Apache NWR. I was wondering: does the OOF tree at the left add or subtract from the image? I also have several without the tree. My first impression on viewing this series of images was that this one caught my eye. The ones without the tree seemed too far removed from the environment and a bit sterile. I really liked the soft light and the colors. One thought I had was to crop a bit more off the top to make it more of a panoramic.

Canon 7D; ISO 1250; 500 mm f/4L IS; f/8 at 1/5000 sec. Untouched as came from camera except for moderate luminance smoothing in LR 4.2.

As always, C/C welcomed and encouraged.

[Jeff Sorbie]

Beautiful warm sunset and feeling to this photo Dennis. The tree on the side does catch my eye and I am not sure I like it or not. Nice photo and I will wait to see the ones without the tree.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Very nice silhouette you have. I like that you can see all of the wings tips clearly, and the mountains in the background add to the overall feel. However, I don't think that the oof tree adds much, and would take a look at a version where it isn't in there

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, a pano crop would certainly be good here. I too like the mountains, but a couple of the peaks have stray light on them that I would remove. My personal taste says no tree.

[Arthur Morris]

The tree detracts for several reasons, the main one being that it stops the birds. Yes to a pano crop with a bit cropped off the back (as the small group is dead centered). Two nice wing positions on the two front birds, but....

Nice soft colors and sharp.

[Bill Dix]

I think a pano would look nice, but probably better without the tree. If one of the others has the RH bird with wings up, that would be an improvement. Nicely seen, in any case.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thank you for the constructive comments. I will stop by a little later with a different image, and a different crop, to see what you think (right now, I have to run). Many thanks!

[Dennis Zaebst]

Re-post of original, re-cropped and removed tree at left. Also tried to mitigate the effects of stray sun rays on the top of mountains. I also cloned in the 3rd crane at right to make the group more harmonious. Finally added canvas at left in Photoshop.

Let me know if this is an improvement or not. Thanks in advance.

[Roger Clark]

Dennis,
The repost is much better. I felt the OOF tree detracted. But I also thought the right-most bird's wing touching the head detracted too. The new image with similar wing position is very nice.
I was at Bosque till Monday.

Roger

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thank you Roger.