Two for the Price of One...

[Arthur Morris]

This Sandhill Crane flight image was created with the Gitzo 3532 LS carbon fiber tripod, the Mongoose M3.6 head, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops off the sky in early morning light at 7:11am: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Color temperature: AWB.

Central sensor/AI Servo/Surround Rear Focus AF on the leg of the front bird active at the moment of exposure. See the BreezeBrowser screen capture below. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

Click here to see yesterday's blog post, "Multi-Subject Flight Photography Tips and a Primer On Exposing for Whites in Bright Sun."

As for the image, don't be shy; all comments are welcome.

[Joe Murphy]

A bargain Artie, great detail,love the layered BG with the mountains & sky, the wings on both birds are pretty near identical, a beautiful image.

[Holger Leyrer]

Beautiful light and wing Position. Compliment for Background. Great Image.

[Karl Egressy]

Pretty amazing the way they are in almost perfect synchrony. Also the hunched back lines up with the curves of the clouds in the background.
Nice complimenting background and a beautiful overall presentation.

[Enrique Patino]

schooling us on how to use mountains as bg when shooting large birds at bosque. thanks Artie!

lovely image... and I like how light is (reflected?) under the wings... and a good tutorial in your blog. TFS

in your opinion, is there a more desirable position for the birds relative to the shape of the OOF mountains that could improve this image? I do not know how to begin to answer that.

[Tiago Caravana]

Very nice symmetry between birds, good light management, nice background and POV

[Arthur Morris]

schooling us on how to use mountains as bg when shooting large birds at bosque. thanks Artie!

lovely image... and I like how light is (reflected?) under the wings... and a good tutorial in your blog. TFS

in your opinion, is there a more desirable position for the birds relative to the shape of the OOF mountains that could improve this image? I do not know how to begin to answer that.

Thanks. In an ideal world, the back bird might have been 6 inches lower. Otherwise, pretty ideal as is :)

[Grace Scalzo]

This is piece with great visual beauty. Such simplicity and complexity all at the same time. Totally delicious.

[David Salem]

Nice capture. Love the symmetry and the wing and head positions. The BG really sets this off nicely. Techs look great too. One of your best Crane posts!

[christopher galeski]

Nice image,sharp good detail,love the light,great BG.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Artie, love the symmetrical flight poses, and what I like even more is how the shape of the front crane follows the shape of the distant mountain. Lovely soft light, both tack sharp, and good to see the various coloured layers in the BG. Well captured.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Artie,
great symmetrical shot in very nice lightning.Gorgeous BKG, in an ideal world i would have liked the birds a tad lower in the frame , or the mountains a bit higher.Personally i think there could be a tad more space on LHS.
There are some halos creeping through along the legs and the darker wing parts, think they are from sharpening .

TFS Andreas

[Loi Nguyen]

Artie, this is a beautiful shot. Love the layers of the mountains in the BG. Sweet light and colors. I'm with Andres for wishing to have a tad more space on the LHS. TFS. Loi

[Mark Corpe]

Hi Artie,

Firstly, very good image. Secondly, a question. Having read your book on bird photography one of your techniques puzzles me and this image reminded me as you used the same technique here. If I read this right, you've used evaluative metering and taken your reading from the sky. Presumably locking the metering (I assume in aperture priority) with 1 +1/3 +EV dialled in. Clearly this works as the image is right. All I'm thinking is, wouldn't it be simpler to just use centre weighted average or even spot metering (depending on the BG) and with metering then started along with AF on the back button, you'd have one less thing to do before taking the shot? Probably there's good reason for not doing that, just curious to hear your opinion?

Regards,

Mark.

[Greg Oakley]

Stunning image Arthur - awesome identical flight poses, plus a beautiful BG

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie,

Firstly, very good image. Secondly, a question. Having read your book on bird photography one of your techniques puzzles me and this image reminded me as you used the same technique here. If I read this right, you've used evaluative metering and taken your reading from the sky. Presumably locking the metering (I assume in aperture priority) with 1 +1/3 +EV dialled in. Clearly this works as the image is right. All I'm thinking is, wouldn't it be simpler to just use centre weighted average or even spot metering (depending on the BG) and with metering then started along with AF on the back button, you'd have one less thing to do before taking the shot? Probably there's good reason for not doing that, just curious to hear your opinion?

Regards,

Mark.

Mark. Not my opinion. You are confused. I am working in Manual mode so no EC dialed in at all. Sometimes I meter on the grass and open up 1/3 or 2/3 sometimes on the sky as I did here. Set the EXP manually, take one test frame, check the histogram and adjust if needed, then fire away. Re-check every five minutes as the sun is coming up....