Too Many Good Sandhill Crane Flight Images....

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Autofocus lens and the Canon EOS-1D X digital SLR . ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop off the low sky: 1/3200 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. Central sensor/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a spectacular larger version.


Note that I was working 99.99% right down sun angle. The tiny shadow of the bend of the near-wing on the dorsal surface of the far-wing indicates that I was off by .01%.

Learn more about the 1D X and see nine more very nice Sandhill Crane flight images in this blog post, "Is the Lethal Canon EOS-1D X Unfair to Flying Cranes?"

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Beautifully lit crane, full up wing position, nice angle in frame to show the leading edge of back wing, sharp, nice sense of environment.

Cheers

Randy

[Arno Ellmer]

Superb,Artie.These are such delightful crane images of this series. I love the perfect wing up pose and flight angle , as well as the serene and subtle bg.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I really like the peaceful feel of this Artie and the nice bg.

[Geir Jensen]

Gorgeous photo. What I really liked about this picture is that BG isn't completely out of focus. I get a feeling that the bird is flying high

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Beautiful image. I love the quality of light, the details, and the wing position. Great combo! Curious, could you have shot this at a slower shuter speed and gotten away with a sharp set of wings? I know on the 1DX it may not be a problem, but in general it may be? Curious as your min ss for cranes in flight. Thanks!

Also, if we click on the image we don't get a larger version (that's something for your site). ;)

[Nick Palmieri]

Love the position of the bird in the frame. The BG really works with just a sliver of sky above the OOF mountains. Very nice.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I wouldn't beat myself up too much if this was mine Artie, the light looks pretty good from over here! Super shot well caught, the all important eye is clearly visible and I also like those distant hills, in fact everything about the image is just about spot on.

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

You gotta love it those 1Dx's... Great shot and all the others in the blog post as well.

[Marina Scarr]

Great pose. The light lit up that SHC like a x-mas tree. Like the way he fit into the mountain curves/scene so well.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the light, wing position, setting and composition. Excellent image Arthur!

[Roger Clark]

Hi Artie,
I'll start a little discussion and let's see where it goes. You indeed got a very low phase angle image. I like the wing position and position of the bird in the frame, and as usual, you nailed the focus. Well done. But the phase angle is too low for my tastes as it results in too little shading (pretty much none in the case). I feel the bird appears too flat and without form. On the fine detail scale, while the focus is perfect, the lack of shadows in the feather structure reduces our perception of fine detail. So my question is did you get other images earlier in the bird's flight, when the wings were in similar positions, but when the bird was to the left, where the phase angle would be higher, showing nice shading and thus form on the bird, and micro-shading in the feathers showing better fine detail. So the question is, do you have images of the bird earlier than this one with the wings in similar position? If so, that would be very illustrative of the phase angle effect and it would be interesting to show them side by side (or up and down in a thread).

Roger

[Satish Ranadive]

Arthur Sir:
Absolutely superb flight pose.Love the full wing position,beautiful lights and very nice background.
Superb composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Brilliant Artie, love the golden light, perfect wing position and what make this even better for me is the OOF BG mountains TFS.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Artie, love the light in this, together with a good flying pose with the raised wings. Well placed in the frame, and the crane pops nicely from the distant BG. Well captured.

[arash_hazeghi]

light and details are just perfect and the wing position is great too. I like the BG which renders the Bosque landscape

still have to take out my 1DX for a try, it has been rainy here with 0 activity

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie,
I'll start a little discussion and let's see where it goes. You indeed got a very low phase angle image. I like the wing position and position of the bird in the frame, and as usual, you nailed the focus. Well done. But the phase angle is too low for my tastes as it results in too little shading (pretty much none in the case). I feel the bird appears too flat and without form. On the fine detail scale, while the focus is perfect, the lack of shadows in the feather structure reduces our perception of fine detail. So my question is did you get other images earlier in the bird's flight, when the wings were in similar positions, but when the bird was to the left, where the phase angle would be higher, showing nice shading and thus form on the bird, and micro-shading in the feathers showing better fine detail. So the question is, do you have images of the bird earlier than this one with the wings in similar position? If so, that would be very illustrative of the phase angle effect and it would be interesting to show them side by side (or up and down in a thread).

Roger

Hi Roger, Nice meeting you a the crane pools. As for phase angle, I very much like the image posted above and many of the others on the blog post that have close to zero phase angle (if I understand it correctly).

I gotta say that we have had this discussion before, that everyone else here loves the image and the light, that you are obviously on a perch by yourself, and as I have said many times before, I have been pointing my shadow at my subjects for close to 29 years now and doing so has worked well for me (except when creating silhouettes and backlit images). We will therefore, need to agree to disagree.

I am posting one here with a better phase angle. I believe that it is just as sharp. I do not see any better fine feather detail and I hate the shadow of the near wing on the far wing. This represents that extracted detail without and NIK applied. I doubt that I will ever process this one .

Respectfully.

[Roger Clark]

Hi Artie,

I do like this higher phase angle better. I do like the shadow on the wing. This does appear to be a different bird, so comparison is a little compromised. How close in time were the two images? The reason I ask is that this second one (higher phase angle) has richer colors. Another affect of phase angle is that near zero phase angle colors become less saturated. This higher phase angle image has richer colors in both the bird and the background. I noticed this effect visually while I was there at the ponds. The bird is also showing some form to the body as we see shading on the under-side of the body and neck. There is more contrast in the feather detail. And finally, the open beak adds a lot. I like this image much better than the original lower phase angle one.

Roger

[Arthur Morris]

Not me . This one was at 7:03am.

[Shawn Zierman]

The background in the first image is pretty special imo, and the overall composition is just rockin.
Sharp sharp flight shot, great details, pops off the screen due to the great isolation.
Just awesome basically.

[Dennis Zaebst]

I have to agree with Roger. I like the second shot better for its micro contrast and better feather detail. Perhaps the BG in the original is a bit more interesting, but the BG in the second photo is fine too. Don't get me wrong...both photos are pretty special and most photographers would be happy to have either one.

I am of the old-school philosophy, where one is not afraid of shadows, and maximizing texture is a good thing. Too much shadow is bad, but some shadows are part of nature and actually add interest and detail to photos. Ansel Adams, in photographing landscapes, used shadow detail to great effect in his photos, and he in fact processed his negatives and prints to maximize the dark to light range of tones in his prints. That range of tones is often what made his photos really pop and made them special (not to mention his mastery of composition and light). Now bird photography is a different animal of course in some respects. But I believe the same principles apply: don't have or include excessive shadows because they CAN hide detail in important areas, but use them intelligently in maximizing the range of tones and thus the total impact of the photo. Micro-contrast and fine detail (of which Roger is speaking) is also important in maximizing overall texture and detail, whether the photo be of rocks and trees, or of birds.

Thank you Roger for initiating this discussion, which I believe is an important one. I am always willing to learn and these kinds of discussions are one of the mechanisms.