Landing Sandhill Crane Blur

[DaveKlein]

Hi everyone - I am new to BPN and this is my first posting...gulp! This image was made at Bosque del Apache NWR this November at about 9:00 a.m. on the Farm Loop. Intent was to create some blurs of Sandhills coming into the corn fields. I welcome any comments and CC - thanks! CS5 post-processing involved cropping, slight curve and saturation adjustments and sharpening. Technical details are as follows:
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikon 200-400mm VR at 380mm (effective focal length 570mm)
Matrix metering with +1/3 exp. comp
Aperature: f/11
Shutter speed: 1/40 sec.
ISO 400
Gitzo 1325 CF tripod w/ Mongoose 3.5b head

[denise ippolito]

Dave, It was a pleasure to meet you in Bosque and I am glad you decided to post this! Excellent amount of blur and the color tones look great. I love it-one of the best I've seen!
Big welcome to BPN and OOTB.:)

[DaveKlein]

Dave, It was a pleasure to meet you in Bosque and I am glad you decided to post this! Excellent amount of blur and the color tones look great. I love it-one of the best I've seen!
Big welcome to BPN and OOTB.:)

Thanks Denise, your comments are greatly appreciated and I equally enjoyed meeting you as part of Artie's IPT group. I am very impressed by how you all work very hard for your attendees. For me, like so many others, Bosque remains a very special place.

[Myer Bornstein]

Excellent blur with a sharp face love it. Bosque is a special place, My first time there with Artie

[Christopher Miller]

Welcome to BPN, Dave, and smashing good image to start with! :) I agree with Denise...one of best blurs I've ever seen! Has an almost painterly look to it and just enough detail. Love the colors and pose. Well done!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Everything about this image works.....the birds wingspread, the overall image design, and the blur while maintaining head sharpness is magnificent..........welcome to BPN, Please post more...............

[Roman Kurywczak]

Welcome Dave!! Great first post and you are sure to get some great inspiration hanging out here!!! Very well done!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Dave, great blur! Look forward to seeing more of your work.

[Nancy Bell]

Very well done! I spent several days at Bosque in November and never captured anything like this.

[Paul Lagasi]

Welcome, what a way to start...very very nice blur, colors wing position, everything...TFS

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dave, welcome to OOTB with a beautiful image! The blur is perfect, I love the soft colors - it looks like a painting and I love it:) I hope you post lots more.

[DaveKlein]

Thanks everyone for your commentary and welcoming messages :)