My favorite Bosque Crane image

[Doug Brown]

The day I took my son to the Bosque, we photographed with Artie's IPT group for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Due to a southwest wind and clear skies, I decided to take my son to the flight deck for the evening fly-in. The flight deck was mobbed because it was Saturday of the Festival of the Cranes. We were lucky to find ourselves a spot up front, and waited for the birds. The conditions were perfect! The problem was that only 3 or 4 birds flew in before the sunset, and they all flew at a considerable distance relative to the deck. Fortunately I had my 600 with a 1.4x on a 1.6 body, or else this shot would not have been possible.



Canon 7D, 600mm + 1.4x, f/6.3, 1/1250, ISO 640, manual exposure, hand held

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Doug, I really like the pose with the great view of the underside of the wings. Nice warm light. I also find the composition pleasing with just enough room all round. Very nice!. I might try and lighten the bird a little so it stands out from the background a bit more. I am curious, do you know what are the red bumps on the birds breast are? Thanks for sharing.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

The soft light really helped here, with nice details throughout the range of exposure, and a very nice eye. I like the comp. and splayed feet.

I do agree with Phil about trying to show a bit of separation between the bird and the background. It wouldn't take much.

Randy

[david cramer]

Beautiful light and color, and wonderful pose. The bird looks considerably brighter than the bg to me, especially the wings, however it wouldn't hurt to try and lighten it to see the results. I am guessing this is a significant crop as some of the detail is lost. Still, it is an eye-catcher. The wing spread is impressive.

[Fabs Forns]

I can see how this would be your favorite. Not only the pose, but the huge impact is from the light!

Well done!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Doug....it sure is good. Excellent wing spread with the large primaries giving a lot of impact. Show the habitat very nicely too.

[Alfred Forns]

Would be my favorite also Doug !! Gorgeous light, good looking bird and killer pose !!! Big Congrats !!!

[Krijn Trimbos]

Brilliant pose, comp, BG, sharpness and excuisite light. Well done man!

[Bill Dix]

Doug - Spectacular light and wing spread. Understandably a favorite. A very handsome image.

[John Blumenkamp]

Awesome Doug! My comments echo those of others... fantastic light and wing spread. Looks great against that background as well. :)

[Nagesh Mula]

Beautiful light, very good wing position and great composition. Congrats Doug!!
One more to lighten the bird a bit.

[Kim Rollins]

Doug-

Very nice capture here as the bird is setting in just right. You nailed it.

Knowing that it was afternoon light and so some gold light should be there I hesitate to suggest this. However I am wondering about rolling the gold back just a little on the bird. My suggestion would be and if you have CS4 to run a Photo Filter Adj. Layer on it Cooling Filter set about 12- 15% and then brush back the gold in the bg on the mask with black.

Again nice capture here for sure.

[arash_hazeghi]

Love the flight pose and warm afternoon light. Excellent job Doug love it as presented.

[Harshad Barve]

Doug
What a beautiful shot , lovely compo and great , great lighting
TFS

[Indranil Sircar]

Beautiful composition, Doug. Definitely one of my favorites of yours. The light is amazing and even more your ability to consistently get outstanding sharpness with hand held 600mm!

[Elmar Venter]

This image has a huge wow-factor. Thanks for sharing.

[James Salywoda]

This is definately one of many from the Bosque that I have seen of yours that are
fantastic. Awesome Shot!

[Ofer Levy]

This a fantastic image Doug! I think it can go a bit brighter and applying some cooling filter would also help IMO.
Would appreciate any feedback.
Cheers,
Ofer ;)

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Great image Doug. Like the incoming pose & light.:)

[Kiran Poonacha]

great pose and light captured bhai, good compo too.. congrats..

[Doug Brown]

I am curious, do you know what are the red bumps on the birds breast are? Thanks for sharing.

I was wondering the same thing myself Phil.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the repost Ofer. A bit brighter than I remember it, but I think it works well.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Lovely image Doug!

I like the light, composition and the pose. Is this full frame? Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi