Whooping Crane (C)

[Loi Nguyen]

After a fruitless day searching for the wild Whooping Cranes at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, I gave up and drove to the International Crane Foundation (ICF) about 1 hour away. I was pleasantly surprised at hoe beautiful the Whooping Crane exhibit was. Two Whooping Cranes shared a huge fenced in area and there was a theater with benches for the visitors. All looking very "natural" and no fence between us and the cranes.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/2500
F8
ISO-800
Tripod

The light was still harsh, but later the cranes moved off.
Cropped all around
Removed 2 distracting strands of grass.

This is a critically endangered species, so I thought I would share an image here.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Randy Stout]

Loi:

Glad to see another whooper. The vertical lines of the grasses goes well with the crane. Nice head position.

In a perfect world, I would wish the tree to be a bit more separated form the head/neck, perhaps moving a foot or two to the right when taking the image, but of course that might not have been possible, or perhaps the grasses would have been in the way then.

Like the horizontal clouds in background.

Thanks for sharing this rare fellow.

Cheers

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image Loi, these cranes are so special. Note self... find Florida's resident population and photograph them. We also have a flock of Whooping Cranes that follow a ultra-light plane to their wintering grounds in Florida. Thank you for sharing.

[Marina Scarr]

Your low angle worked well for you here. I like the bird's pose. The grasses work very well, and luck for you none ended up (at least in this frame) in the bird's face. Agree this image would have been even stronger with the more separation from the large tree.

[Binu John]

Beautiful shot! I like the pose, composition and POV! TFS