Sandhill Crane Story Time

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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_AWD9073-214-216-217-218
_AWD9073-214-216-217-2182000Ă—1333 2.09 MB

Image Description

Last spring, on the first day of my 6 day trip to Yellowstone NP, I was thrilled to spot a pair of Sandhill Cranes about 100 yards from the road. To my delight, they were accompanied by two adorable, very tiny colts! I made it part of my daily routine to stop in and observe and photograph this family going about their business of raising their family at least once a day during the rest of my visit. It is amazing to think that in just four short months, June to October, these small colts will be big and strong enough to fly 1000 miles or more south for the winter!

On the first day of my visit to Yellowstone National Park last spring while driving towards Lamar Valley, I was fortunate to have observed a pair of Sandhill Cranes in a marshy area about 100 yards from the road. I quickly discovered that they had two very small colts with them. I made it part of my routine to stop at least once a day to observe this family going about their business of raising their family. It is incredible to think that in just 4 months (June to October) these small colts will be big enough to fly south for the winter!

Feedback Requests

My usual struggle with wildlife scenes like this, i.e. an animal in its natural environment, is to try to make the animal(s) stand out without making the scene look un-natural. Any comments regarding this dilemma or other aspects of this image would be most welcome.

Pertinent Technical Details

This image was processed in Adobe LR, Topaz Photo AI and Adobe Photoshop. I used Topaz Photo AI to both denoise and slightly sharpen the image. In photoshop I used the new object selection capability in Photoshop Beta to select the birds. This allowed me to darken and desaturate the background and lighten the birds slightly.

Details:
Camera: Canon R5 on tripod
Lens: Canon 600mm F4.0 with 2X extender
Settings: ISO 3200, 1200 mm, F/8.0 1/1600 sec

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What a beautiful image! I’ve never heard of baby birds being called “colts”. I learn something everyday here.

The interaction between parent and young is priceless. Babies nestled in amongst feathers and the peering eyes all connecting is wonderful. I like the colour of the babies’ beak echoing the parents red forehead.

I think you’ve done an excellent job of separating the background from the birds but still allowing the habitat and nest to play an important role in the image. I like the compostition of the image, but there could be another version with a small crop from the bottom and a larger slice from the LHS.

I also liked reading the story with the image.

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Willm, this is a great look at this Crane and her colts, in what I would call a fairly common nesting area. (I’m thinking, that it’s Floating Island Lake…) Part of what impresses me about this scene is how the Cranes blend in decently with their surroundings. Having the one colt calling is a nice bonus.

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Thank you for your feedback. I believe it is very close to Specimen Ridge at the base of Junction Butte just off the road. There is a dried up lake there with marsh grass as you can see in the image. They blended in really well!