SLEEPING SENTRY

[Marina Scarr]

Each evening like clockwork, just as the sun was setting, the male would fly into the area of the nest and take over the incubation until dawn. It's apparently standard nesting procedure with Sandhill Crane pairs. For a short period of time after the sun went down, although there was no light to speak of on the nest, there was still some light filtering through to the BG vegetation. This soon-to-be daddy was comfortable enough with our presence to take a siesta during his watch. The memories of this nest will forever be engraved in my mind.

Canon 5D, Canon 400DO
F4, 1/320sec, ISO 100, manual mode
Feisol tripod

Thank you for looking. Your comments & critiques are always welcomed and much appreciated.

Marina Scarr
Florida Master Naturalist
www.marinascarrphotography.com

[Randy Stout]

Marina:

Very painterly feel, which for me is a good thing! Because of the subdued lighting on the nest and bird, it would be very easy to overpower the bird with the brighter BG.

To reduce the impact of the BG a bit, I could see a crop down to just below your sig, or possibly just tone down the luminosity of the BG a point or two.

Very nice as presented, very peaceful feeling.

What time of year was this taken? Feb or March?

Cheers

Randy

[Mike Milicia]

You caught a wonderful moment here with a killer BG and very nicely composed!

Might consider selectively lightening the bird ever so slightly.

[Marina Scarr]

Marina:

What time of year was this taken? Feb or March?

Third week in March 2011, Randy.

[Robert Holguin]

Beautiful shot.
You captured the calmness of this moment perfectly.
Lovely light, terrific comp, and excellent details.
Very well done.

[Steve Canuel]

Beautiful BG and such a nice peaceful pose. Contrast between light BG and dark FG looks good.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is very sweet Marina!

[dankearl]

I think this is sweet also.
A tender moment and the subdued light on the crane works for me.

[Sachin Saraf]

This is sweet image Marina...I really love the BG.

[Satish Ranadive]

Marina:
Excellent beautiful image with peaceful mood.
Love the pose and nice environment.

Regards,
Satish.

[PhilCook]

This picture makes me yawn lovely serene image Marina with the sleeping bird and subdued light....classy backdrop as well

[Nick Palmieri]

The BG is awesome Marina. I think it tells a nice story and works as presented.

[Jim Neiger]

Beautiful image! This brings back memories for me. My first photography experience with my first DSLR (10D) was spending 30 days with a Crane nest similar to this one while waiting for the eggs to hatch. That's how I first met Artie. He saw my images of the Crane nest and called me up to see if he could come photograph it with me. He called me at midnight one night and then met me in my driveway the next morning at 6:00am to go out in my boat and photograh the cranes.

[Melissa Groo]

What a beautiful portrait, Marina, that tells such a sweet story. Interesting info you shared too on how the male takes over the nest at night.
I love that background and all the textures of the nest and the crane. I spent some time photographing sandhills for the first time on my recent visit to Florida, and just fell in love with them.
Nice to see how comfortable this fellow was with you.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Marina, this is beautiful...the BG is just crazy, in a good way! I was wondering about lightening the darker bird and FG a bit...but now that I look at it more I like it as is and tells the story of the dimming last light. Excellent image.

[adrian dancy]

I like everything about this ...a very pleasing image.

[gail bisson]

Hi Marina,
I love the "Monet" background and the beautiful light on it.
I like the sleeping pose and the feel of the image.
If this was mine (and I wish it was!) I would smooth out the whitish trapezoid area in front of the beak,
Gail

[Troy Lim]

Very nice image indeed. Love the light in BG. Very clean nest, well done.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Marina, I can almost feel the serenity this guy is feeling. The light to me is lovely and helps to tell the story of the sun going down. I really like the way the reeds are curved and softly focused. If I were to change anything about this image it would be to soften up the lighter oof area directly in front of the bill just to mae it a little less prominent. I hope to shoot some of these moments with you this year my friend.

[Randy Stout]

Marina:

Here is a subtle tweak of your excellent image as we discussed. A bit of lighting on the bird, and some subtle vignetting and softening to the BG. A bit different feel, and perhaps not what you had in mind, but an option. You will probably need to view them side by side to see some of the subtle changes.

Congrats on a fine image.

Cheers

Randy

[David Salem]

Love the whole scene and the feel to this capture. Warm colors, great BG and nice detail make for a beautiful image. Well done

[Greg Oakley]

Stunning atmospheric image, Marina,
Cheers, Greg

[Karl Egressy]

Lovely image, Marina. Love the painterly background.

[BobbyPerkins]

I very much enjoyed your story and it's closure in the fitting wonderful image. I actually like the contrast of light with the nest in shadow and the napping papa, the day's last warm light in the background. The nesting behavior and images make for a wonderful article.

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Randy:

Thanks for working on this picture. Either one works fine for me. I did have to take them both into PS to see the differences.

Marina:

Here is a subtle tweak of your excellent image as we discussed. A bit of lighting on the bird, and some subtle vignetting and softening to the BG. A bit different feel, and perhaps not what you had in mind, but an option. You will probably need to view them side by side to see some of the subtle changes.

Congrats on a fine image.

Cheers

Randy