Sandhill Crane in Flight

I don't post in the Avian gallery much, but I can give a few suggestions here. You have the tones pretty well under control, with just a bit of blown highlights (at least on my display) on the head. You can probably recover those, especially if you are shooting Raw images. There is a fair amount of noise, especially visible in the sky which some noise reduction on a sky selection would solve. This looks to me fairly-well situated in the frame, but with such a featureless sky, cloning out that offending bird should be easy. I think you've expressed what you sought in this image.

The composition is fine. The details are very good with the exception of a little softness on the head. Overall, it is a very nice flight capture !

Well take! There is a small area on the cranes head where the highlight is blown out, but overall the exposure and detail is right on! Good choice of shutter speed. Cloning out the other bird seems to have been a good decision. The blank sky sets off the crane very well. Thanks for sharing, hope to see more of your photos.

Hi Sandra: Cranes are a beautiful bird to watch and photograph. Great that you were able to get a chance to see them and photograph them. Living in Albuquerque affords the ability to photograph at Bosque Del Apache on regular occasions so I see and have photographed thousands of cranes. I like your image for the nice wing position and good sharpness. The bird looks pretty bright to me. I think the image could easily be darker and retain all of the detail and provide more accurate crane plumage colors. I'm attaching an edited version to tackle those issues. I also ran a round of noise reduction on the sky. The toughest part of a perfect exposure on the crane is not losing the white patch below the eye. This one is a touch bright.

An appreciative thanks to all who commented. And Keith, thank you so much for taking the time to provide an edited version. Being a "visual" learner and seeing your edited image is a great lesson for me. I can immediately see and appreciate the changes you made.
While in Monte Vista there was one evening when the sunset turned the sky a 360 degree crimson, orange, pastel blue while the cranes were taking off toward the ponds. With the cranes in flight and white capped mountains as backdrop I was truly in awe but my photos have a lot noise. I think I will go back and re-edit a few of those.
I have entertained the idea of traveling to Bosque Del Apache to photograph there and your workshop appears most interesting.
Meantime, I am traveling to Churchill end of October to photograph the Polar Bears. Any tips? Thanks again!

Welcome Sandra, you have gotten some really good advise and Keith's re-work of your image is an improvement. I'm sure you will learn a lot from the talented folks here. That's a very nice flight shot of the crane, can't wait to see more of your photos.

Welcome to the gallery Sandra. Nice image and I have to agree with Keith's points and re-work. I live in Colorado and have shot many times at both Monte Vista and Bosque and don't get me wrong, I love Monte Vista, but Bosque is truly a unique experience. Hope you get a chance to check it out. If you take a guided approach, you can't go wrong with Keith and his crew...they are three very talented photographers.