Sweet Light Landing Crane

[Arthur Morris]

Sandhill Crane braking to land in early morning light. Tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop off the grasses: 1/800 sec. at f/8 in Manual Mode. Moved the bird back in the frame and added canvas left as detailed in Robert O'Toole's APTATS II.

For single cranes and geese in flight this year at Bosque was as good as any (despite the dire forecasts....). See lots more images and info in recent BAA Notes & Bulletins and Blog posts.

As for the image, don't be shy: all comments welcome.

[Ofer Levy]

Light, colours, pose, shooting angle, eye contact, sharpness, detail and exposure - all look great to me. If anything maybe a bit more room - especially at the top as it feels a bit tight.
How far were you from the bird? As I notice less detail in my images taken from more than about 30 meters.

[Roger Clark]

Hello Artie, Beautiful image, nicely exposed and sharp, as usual. Do you have the frame or two before this one? The left wing is pointed straight at the camera and it would be nice to see it opened up a little more. Roger

Thanks Roger. I managed to keep the sensor on the bird and get the whole bird in the frame on only this single keeper--if my math is correct I was working at a bit more than 29X....). I agree on the near-wing position but it is possible that we might lose the killer view of the far underwing as a result.... I was quite happy with this one :).

[Arthur Morris]

Light, colours, pose, shooting angle, eye contact, sharpness, detail and exposure - all looks great to me. If anything maybe a bit more room - especially at the top as it feels a bit tight. How far were you from the bird? As I notice less detail in my images taken from more than about 30 meters.

Thanks! I am fine with the framing as it. According to the EXIF .64 meters or about 25 inches.... I guess that they mean 64 meters or about 210 feet. That makes a bit more sense . They are large birds..... I did run a touch of NIK Color Efex Detail Extractor, probably at about 30% on the bird only (via a Hide-all Mask). Both Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast are amazing.... Learn more about Detail Extractor here.

[Ofer Levy]

Thanks! I am fine with the framing as it. According to the EXIF .64 meters or about 25 inches.... I guess that they mean 64 meters or about 210 feet. That makes a bit more sense . They are large birds..... I did run a touch of NIK Color Efex Detail Extractor, probably at about 30% on the bird only (via a Hide-all Mask). Both Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast are amazing.... Learn more about Detail Extractor here.

Thanks Artie - looks very interesting and useful especially now that I use the 800mm.
Here is what I had in mind regarding the composition - since you've already added some canvas - just a bit more - top, bottom, left and right. I feel it makes this lovely image even better.

[Doug Brown]

Gorgeous light and a great landing pose! I do prefer the roomier version by Ofer. It's definitely been much better than expected at the Bosque so far. Let's see how things go now that the Festival is over.

[dankearl]

Very nice, if anything I would go a tad darker. I don't mind the crop at all.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent warm light with great angle and no shadows, pose, details and BG are great. I prefer Ofer's crop.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Lovely light, nice background, dynamic pose, clean view of the head,good detail teased out.

re: crop - because all the flow of the image is down towards the left, the original crop works well, but I think the slightly looser version works nicely also.

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

The light is "to die for". Agree with more room on top. Otherwise a lovely shot with perfect exposure,
Gail

[Arthur Morris]

I like Ofer's version better too.

[Stu Bowie]

You just keep turning them out. Killer light and approach angle, and I do like the sharpness. Killer BG too. Another vote for seeing more room on top as posted above. Well captured Artie.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Amazing, amazing light, bg colors and pose, Artie.
Another vote for Ofer's comp.
There's a smudge between the feet that I'd remove.
Killer image. Love it.

[James Salywoda]

Stunning image Artie gorgeous colors and detail.