Cuddling on the Nest with Mommy

[Jim Neiger]

Osceola County, Fl - 1D4, 500mm, hand held from boat, 1/400, F9, ISO 1000, manual exposure

I think the chicks are about 1 and 2 days old. I discovered this nest yesterday after they had already hatched. We watched the babies play fight for a long time. I think the fight went about eight rounds and a million photos. :)

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Precious. Beautifully exposed, composed, sharp,great DOF, interaction.

I am surprised the chick can crawl up on mom that high!

I am still look for the BIF, but I like it as is.:)

Thanks, made me smile.

Randy

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Great shot, but why didn't you find them when I was there?

Mac

[Jim Neiger]

Great shot, but why didn't you find them when I was there?

Mac

Ironically, they were very close to the place where we shot the Snail Kite with the fish. I was looking for him when we found the Cranes. If we had found them, it would have been just before they hatched. I'm guessing that one hatched on Sunday and the other on Monday.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Jim,
This is too cute :)
I shall be posting the barred owls any day!! :D
Best regards,
Nicki

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely shot!
Here is a repost with a tighter crop.
Cheers,
Ofer

[Keith Bauer]

Hey Jim... This is really great. What a nice interaction with the mom and the chicks. I much prefer your original to the tighter crop.

[Nancy A Elwood]

Jim I like the original post better. This image is so well done!! The interaction is priceless!!

[Paul Lagasi]

Jim, lovely tender moment....particularily like the youngster poking his head out at the top...good exposure, sharpness and DOF

[Steve Large]

Jim,
Great family portrait. Nice eye contact and feather detail. Colors really jump out at you too. Congatulations!

Steve

[susanschermer]

You Son-of-a-Gun, Jimbo. I remember waiting for a SH crane egg for days on one of your workshops. Now, I have to drive two hundred miles to find a nest, and then I don't know when the egg will hatch. Here you are with the Jackpot. Congratulations on a fantastic capture. I'm very jealous.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great one, all three look very good, very lucky...

[allanrube]

Beautiful shot for all the reasons others have said. I will just chime in for Ofer saying I like his crop. The 4 eyses make the shot for me.

[paul leverington]

Hi jim! I'm so envious of your shooting opportunity. This is a wonderful nest shot especially with the one poking his head out! I like the idea of a tighter crop and was thinking just that the second I saw the shot. Ofers was getting too tight and the subjects felt a bit crowded, so I thought this rendition as a possible one.

I felt that since the babies are the real picture subject, chopping into the mom's head wouldn't hurt the shot. Also leaving space at the bottom and the left works her eye to the upper right thirds spot and gives the pic a sense of place and room better(Than Ofers crop). With this crop you have a strong half circle line running from lower left through the first baby, mom's bill --then eye, second baby, mom's back, then out. If you were to do some PS work and make that upper left corner of the BG the brightest BG area you would create a more powerful viewing exit point drawing the eye their.

Paul

**I forgot --I also darkened and did a little bang up cloning on the BG real quick.

** I do like the original too for the environment incuded, but would opt to do something to play down the bg such as as darkening or blurring and most of all some desaturation.

[paul leverington]

Ok I had a bit more time than I thought so here I played the bg a bit and darkened and desat the lower right corner evers so slightly...

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Paul, I like the idea of moving the chick more to the right as in your repost but I don't like the cut head of the adult - how about this one? It will also help to blur the BG at the top as you did.

[paul leverington]

I think it looks much better Ofer --the bg blur worked out great too. I'd rather not chop the head either, but if one did, I don't think it would kill the shot. Another option Jim might be if you had some more canvas for the left to add. Giving that lower little one somewhere to look into I think is where I'm going with my thoughts. Can't get over how sweet the babies are. You lucky dog.

Paul

[Glenda Simmons]

Wow! That is one sweet image! The first crop gets my vote.