Lift Off! + REPOST

Gallery: AvianPosted January 4, 2011136 views10 comments

Back to Bosque ... But then, where else have I been?

This was taken at about 8 in the morning. The cranes appear to roost longer in their ponds than the geese do.

It's amazing to stand and watch the cranes waken, begin to stir, and one by one, off they go to find the fallen grains in the corn fields. The viewing distance is about a football field away from the roosting location of the birds.

This was taken with a D700, f/4 500mm lens, f/8, 1/640s, ISO 500, matrix mode, tripod, -.7 EV, auto focus.

This was cropped to about 60% of the original image to eliminate a dozen or so cranes to the left and behind my subject.

Thanks for taking the time to view and comment on this image.

I know that I have at least two tasks to accomplish in the future. I do need to practice and improve my long lens technique and I want to acquire a 1.4 TC to increase my reach.

Cheers,

Carol

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Andy Shepherd on January 4, 2011 at 1:15 PM

Great looking image, Carol. The light on the Crane is very special and you have captured it perfectly, love the wing position too. As for your long lense technique, I think it looks pretty much sorted.

Andy...

Registered on September 24, 2006, 123 Posts, 1254 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on January 4, 2011 at 2:53 PM

Carol: You captured a nice pose of the crane beginning it's liftoff run. The light on that crane looks very nice. There is something odd with the 3 cranes in the URC. I don't know if the light was that different on those cranes or if this is something in post processing. They seem to be a little muddy in comparison to the couple of OOF cranes in the back just above the main subject.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Hyman on January 4, 2011 at 3:51 PM

Keith, the light on those three OOF bird IS different. There's a green cast to them. I tried color balance, channel mixer, and selective color on those birds to no avail; finally just left them be.

As I take a closer look, the only thing I can think of is to take that whole quadrant, feather it, and try the techniques again. Just looking at the image, I suspect the cranes were picking up some weird reflection from the sun.

Maybe someone in Avian has some great ideas.

Thanks,

Carol

Registered on January 18, 2007, 597 Posts, 8062 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on January 4, 2011 at 5:02 PM

Quite an action shot, Carol! One strength of the shot is how the birds in the background are well placed and blurred enough to not be a distraction even though we can recognize them as birds (in agreement with what Charlie said in his comment). I do find that the shot might be better without the reflection of the main crane though. It's only a partial reflection and I think if you cropped off the bottom to eliminate it we could focus more on the main subject. Very nice detail in the whites.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Hyman on January 4, 2011 at 6:14 PM

There's only one problem with going back to Square One. It's almost impossible to replicate all of the processing actions exactly the same.

With this image, there was a decided green cast to three of the OOF cranes in the BG. I used a layer to carefully paint over that offending green. The result is a little lighter but less muddy in Keith's words.

Steve, your idea of cropping is a good one; it does focus a bit more attention on the subject bird, but also turns the image into a more ordinary one so I've stayed with my partial reflection but thanks for the idea.

Hope you guys find this to be an improvement.

Carol

Registered on January 18, 2007, 597 Posts, 8062 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on January 4, 2011 at 7:40 PM

Much prefer the repost - thanks for all the info

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on January 4, 2011 at 10:22 PM

Hi Carol

Nice action shot. The position ,detail and light on the wings is very good.. The B.G. with the birds is soft , and does not distract. I would have removed the crane's. reflection, and then croped a bit more.
Albert Darmo. Canada

Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 4, 2011 at 10:44 PM

Sweet, Carol. The main subject really pops in the larger image. I think I agree with Steve on the crop, but it's completely a matter of taste.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on January 5, 2011 at 9:57 AM

nice action shot, Carol, I really like that raised leg. The colors look a lot better in the repost. I like the setting and oof cranes too. I agree that you could take some off the bottom.

If you work in layers, it is easy to exactly duplicate each step, as all the adjustment information is preserved in each layer.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on January 5, 2011 at 2:47 PM

This is a very good shot Carol. I like how you kept in the other cranes to show overall habitat. Nice timing on the take-off. Isn't that place just magical?

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments