Evening Roost

[annmpacheco]

In the late afternoon and working with what light I had, I captured this crane incoming through the trees and preparing to land with the other hundreds of cranes for the evening roost. This was taken at Bernardo Wildlife Area, NM. I am so often positioning myself with the sun at my back for optimal shooting that this is a reach for me and one i liked...
I liked this BG of filtered and spot light, majestic trees and some leaves, along with the oof crowd of cranes; layers of BG... There are many vertical out of focus lines as captured and not sloppy artifacts of any cloning. I only cloned one head along the bottom.

1Dx
840mm
ISO 1600
6.3
1/1600

[gail bisson]

Haha!! Too funny that we posted a similar image! I have yet to go through my images from last 2 days at Bosque. I hope I have something good like this.
I think the side lighting works well and provides something different.
The 4 splayed tree trunks on the right of crane pull the eye towards the crane (which is good) and add an "inside the cathedral feel" to the image. The large areas of light in the BG remind me of large windows in churches.
The image works!
I might try to remove some of the blues in the OOF cranes and the main crane
Gail

[John Mack]

Looks a lot like the one gail posted. The light is the opposite of Gail's post but i still like this one. The gray birds stand out nicely. I actually like side light. Gives the image some nice depth with the shadows.

[dankearl]

I love the lower half.. I think the white in the BG is too bright, overpowers the nice side/backlit crane.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ann, great incoming pose with good eye contact. The side lighting shows off the Crane's face and orange eye nicely. I like the splayed legs and curled primaries. What I really like are the three OOF cranes directly below your main subject, equally spaced apart with their red heads showing up.

[Isaac Grant]

OK. Full disclosure here. Viewing the thumbnail I was sure I would not like this image. But I was wrong. I really like this. Great wing position and I love the flock of out of focus cranes.

[Tim Foltz]

Ann, looks similar to Gail's shot, different lighting and angle. the BG trees aren't a issue for me, nice shot.

-Tim

[Arthur Morris]

Though I am not normally a lover of sidelight this one really works well for me with the foreboding trees in the BKGR and the field packed with shaded cranes.
with love, artie

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the side light, setting, BG and composition. Well done Ann!

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I like the incoming Crane and the side lighting which lights the face.

I do not like the background trees that much. I might have take some canvas at the top to make it much more of pano look.

TFS

[David Salem]

Very cool Ann!! As a few mentioned, I love the lower half of the frame as the OOF birds are just right. Exposure and details look great too. Well done