The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
With a delicate touch, a Grey Crowned Crane (aka East African Crowned Crane) offers an insect to her tiny colt, just three days old. Her gentle gaze reflects the fragile bond between generations, a symbol of hope for a species striving to survive. With each new life, the chance for their future grows stronger.
Specific Feedback
Comments on composition and story telling appreciated
Technical Details
Camera Equipment: Nikon Z8 with 400mm f4.5 VR S Nikkor Z lens. Settings: Manual mode. 1/1250 sec @ f 6.3, ISO 280, 0 EV, @ focal length 400mm. Subject distance 10.00 m
Critique Template
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11/10 on the cuteness scale. Great interaction. Beautiful detail. Admittedly anthropomorphic, but there seems to be a look of tenderness in the mother’s eye.
Top marks for composition too. The square crop really suits this. I’m all for anthropomorphism when it comes to mother creatures and young. Those feelings have to be universal, so I love your description too. Great!
Welcome to NPN and the Avian Forum, Garnet. This is a wonderful post. Great subject matter and an excellent composition. If you don’t object to a little cloning, I’d think about removing what looks like a dandelion (or similar) head that’s poking half way into the bottom of the frame, but it’s a very minor issue in an excellent image.
Hi, Garnet - this is a sweet image and conveys pretty universal maternal caring.
I know you object to touching up, but if this were mine, I’d sure clean up a little around the chick’s head and mom’s beak.
Where was this taken?
Fine catch here!
A great image, I like it a lot. It is about the habitat, it is a close-up portrait and it shows the caring of a mother (or father, I don’t know if the sexes can be distinguished) for a child, all in one composition.
No need to clean up anything for me, I like it as presented.
Wonderful interaction captured Garnet. For me the grass that is around the chick shows off his natural hiding place. Very nice cropping in this image highlighting the interaction and still showing off the magnificent head of the adult.
Thank you @Allen_Brooks, @Mike_Friel and @Dennis_Plank for your feedback. Because of the habitat and the parents ability to hide the young I spent 3 hours observing them and managed to get 4 usable images. But, am pleased with the time spent.
Hi Sandy. Thank you for your feedback. My choice of the title was not to intimate that this was ‘mothers work’. It was for ‘truth in advertising’. The male was a short distance away looking after the other offspring, so attempts to photograph them were not successful. These cranes mate for life and take co-parenting seriously in everything from nest building to incubation and then the care and feeding of the young.
Regarding touching up my images, I find that wildlife photographers that I have known over the years appear to fall within one of two camps regarding inclusion or exclusion of habit in images: 1) those who prefer to photograph the animal including their environment, and 2) those who prefer to photograph the environment, with an animal in it. I am unapologetically affiliated with the first group. I believe that the animal’s habitat provides valuable information about their life situation. One of the reasons that this species is on the endangered list is because of a loss of habitat.
The image was taken in Mara North Conservancy, adjacent to Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya during my last visit in Feb/Mar 2024.
Thank you Han. The only way I have found to tell the difference between males and females is to see them together: the males are usually larger and and it was most helpful to have a guide who has studied this pair for a number of years Thank you @Allen_Sparks for your comments about the habitat. Although I have photographed adults and more mture colts this was the first time I have been able to capture one that is only days old. A special memory ,
Thank you