Patience is a Virtue

[Ken Watkins]

At last after 8 days I have found the Blue Cranes in some light and little mist.

Here is one from about 2 hours ago, thanks to Al and Arash for their MkIV tips.:D

EOS 1D MkIV

300mm F4 hand-held on foot or perhaps knees?

F6.3, ISO 1600, 1/800, EV +0.33

The feather on the beak came from early morning preening,

[arash_hazeghi]

Great Ken, looks like the high ISO tricks work. This is one strange big bird and captured well in its habitat.

[Dave Blinder]

Beautiful bird in habitat image Ken. I like the head angle and how you caught the bird midstep. There might be a magenta cast on the image.

[Nico Steenberg]

Great sharp detail. Like the habitat. Subject is well exposed with good natural colours. Well done !

[Steve Large]

Hi Ken,

Looks kind of like our blue herons but with a different head and tail. Nice feather detail and environment capture in sweet light.

Steve

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Ken, such shots are difficult to pull off. wonderfully done here. The raised foot makes a big difference IMO. Very well composed.

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks for all of the kind comments, I cannot pretend that is very comfortable early in the morning when it is cold, and the sun refuses to rise over the mountains.

The BG really helps as most of the other images I have had barren white roks in the BG, which show up the noise "nicely".

Dave thanks for spotting the magenta cast , is this better?