Bosque After the Sunset: Heading Home to Roost

[Doug Brown]

I visited the Bosque yesterday as a scouting trip for my upcoming workshop. Many of the ponds were still fairly frozen due to our recent winter storm, but there were lots of birds. Here's a photo of a Sandhill Crane returning to the roost shortly after sunset.

Canon 1Dx, 600mm II + 1.4x III, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 3200, manual exposure, hand held

[vishaljadhav]

Impressive looking pose captured here.

I love the wing down position giving the super details on them, IQ is superb
the multiple layred BG makes a good setting for this, the slight blur at the wing tips is just enough to give it the feel of motion which engages my eye.
Love it

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Doug, looks like the wing tips are being used as skids for landing.

Good choice in crop/frame, works well with the posture of the Crane. Nice muted colours which emphasises the time of day. Good IQ at ISO3200, the 1DX really is coming into it's own, be interesting to see next years model.

TFS
Steve

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful frame, with just the right amount of oof corn stubble. Great wing position. Like the pano comp. Terrific IQ for high ISO. You could probably make the bird pop a bit more with some added contrast if you were so inclined, but as Steve noted, the image has posted has a lovely muted late-day feeling to it.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely image, Doug. Love the curled wing tips, comp and hint of environment. There is a slight cast in your bird easily remedied. I used a color balance adjustment with +5 on reds and -5 on greens.

[Richard Flack]

Beautiful image Doug. If possible (and it may just be me) but I would try increase the vibrancy of the image a bit more to get the crane to standout.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, excellent flight pose, and I like the placement of the crane in the frame. Good IQ for ISO 3200, and the BG works well with the OOF grasses in the lower half of the frame. Well captured.

[Holger Leyrer]

Wonderful flight pose and composition with yellow gras at the bottom

[gail bisson]

Doug,
I think this image is beautiful.
The eye-level view is so nice. The perfect wing position and how you caught him/her inflight just before he passed you is excellent.
I Like the soft feel of the light.
The BG colors are very complimentary and the OOF tree on the right balances out the image beautifully.
Absolutely no nits from me. Love it!
Gail
I see the cast that Marina mentions but I am OK with it because I think it conveys the subdued post sunset light.

[Doug Brown]

Lovely image, Doug. Love the curled wing tips, comp and hint of environment. There is a slight cast in your bird easily remedied. I used a color balance adjustment with +5 on reds and -5 on greens.

Here's a color corrected version. Thanks Marina!

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Doug! I like the wing position, trailing feet, setting, IQ and composition.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Killer wing position Doug. Clean at ISO 3200 and perfect exposure, as usual.

Bet the workshop participants are excited for next week. Look forward to seeing some images from the workshop

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose wing positions.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Either version works for me, with a slight edge on the repost. Super nice BG offering a neat peak at the habitat.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!