-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), September 03, 1998

Answers

Very nice image. Great exposure and a good composition. The timing is especially good with the one crane spreading its wings. Without it, the image would be pretty dull.

The light falloff in the middle foreground is an interesting problem. A little less shadow in that area would make the crane spreading it's wings stand out a little better.

-- Joe Boyd (boydjw@traveller.com), September 03, 1998.

A very nice shot, composition, interesting subject -- were you able to get some close-ups also? Now that I have seen the benefits of pushing slide film in such situations, I may never again be able to uncritically accept such low contrast/flat results.

-- Lester LaForce (102140.1200@compuserve.com), September 03, 1998.

Very nice photo. Only a few minor improvements. Crop off on the right side half the space between the right most bird. Also a little off the bottom. The little bit of cropping helps to inforce the diagonal running from the bird with spread wings to the birds in the top left. In fact, cropping off the two right most birds is also attractive. Then you have a very dark right side constrasting with a light left side. The diagonal is reinforced since now the right looking left birds are eliminated. Other then that, well done.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), September 03, 1998.

A beautiful image. Perhaps I would have shot it with a little less of the foreground (bottom) and more of the sky. You captured the soul of the scene. Great work.

-- Bahman Farzad (cpgbooks@mindspring.com), September 03, 1998.

The crop that works best for me using 35mm format is just to the right of the right wing tip (between the wing and the other bird on the right) and to the left of the third bird to the left of the one with the spread wings.

The lighting is perfect, as is the atmosphere.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), September 03, 1998.

Very very nice!!! Frank, why in the world would you want to crop it to "35 mm dimensions"? It's much better in slight "panorama format" as it is. I agree with Paul to crop of a touch from the right to make it more symmetrical and perhaps a touch from the bottom, but the latter is a difficult question.

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), September 03, 1998.

Frank,

That's a nice cropping too! Simple, with an almost water colour quality.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), September 03, 1998.

really interesting image. mysterious, with great timing on the spread wings by the sinle bird, the symbolic leader about to direct future movement, exposure is to be congratulated. however, only one nit: i do agree that cropping about 1/2in from bottom would be better composition.

wayne harrison

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), September 03, 1998.

It is very nice image, one of the best ones that I have seen these days. I think cropping half of the distance between the bird at the right front and edge of the picture improves. congratulations.. hamdi

-- hamdi ogut (oguth@ucs.orst.edu), September 03, 1998.

Very nice shot. Normally i would not ask but did your n70 have problems focusing through the fog. I know from personal experience it drives the 8008s batty. I've used the n90s and it does not seem to be overwhelmingly affected by fog. There is something strange about nikon focusing system that is driven crazy by fog or when shooting through glass (window glass), the latter does not seem to be a problem with canon's focusing system. (This is NOT a flame war starting). I am simply asking if anyone else has observed the same quirkyness of the 8008s or lower models focusing systems.

Thanks al

-- Altaf Shaikh (nissar@idt.net), September 04, 1998.

Wooowwwww! I can't think of any improvement. Thanks for sharing.

-- Jana Mullerova (jam@terma.com), September 04, 1998.

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts about this image. I feel that the most important and hardest part of nature photography is getting the right subject in your view finder in the right light. In the case of the sandhill cranes I'm very lucky that they live near where we live. This was a grab shot on my way to work. Normally they don't let you get this close, but they were reluctant to fly off in the fog. I haven't got this close to them or seen them in this type of light since I took the picture. Always have a camera ready to go!!! As for the autofocus question, I am not a good source of technical information. I'm just getting back into photography after 20 yrs of kids and school. I rarely use autofocus except with my sigma 400 to track a moving subject.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), September 04, 1998.