MK3L7434 Nesting pair, Grey Crowned Cranes.CR2
12/15/08 1:09:04 PM
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x @ 700.0mm
1/320, f/8.0, ISO 800
Evaluative Metering
Manual Exposure
White Balance - Cloudy
One-Shot AF
During a Serengeti drive, we encountered these Grey Crowned Cranes (Balearica regulorum gibbericeps) -- one on the nest; the other keeping a watchful eye. Subdued light from the afternoon cloud cover allowed me to better capture the wide range of tones in the birds. I cropped the sides of the image (about half the width of the frame). With the two birds looking toward opposite sides of the frame, I kept the image wider and the birds more centered than I otherwise would have preferred, in order to maintain some space in front of each bird. The image was sufficiently sharp that I was able to do a nice portrait crop of the standing bird, but for this posting I wanted to show the pair's behavior and habitat.
Last edited by Craig Markham; 02-28-2009 at 12:27 PM.
Lovely exposure on this beautiful crane and excellent detail. If it had been possible to have more canvas to the right it would strengthen this composition as it would be leaving room for the grey crane to exit the image. It would have been nice with out the other crane in the grass but then that is not always possible. Many thanks for sharing Craig.
I agree that the standing bird is a bit close to the edge, but I can easily add canvas to either side, since this was a crop. I won't bother with that here, since it's straightforward. As I said in the original post, I included both birds to acknowledge the pair relationship (other aesthetic considerations notwithstanding). Here is a further crop showing the standing bird only. Effective? It does make more of an issue of the OOF rushes in front of the bird.
Nesting pair, Grey Crowned Cranes
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