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Sandhill Crane Fesitval Monte Vista Colorado
Posted By: jbrowning, 10-28-2008, 08:59 PM

In the middle of October there was the Sandhill Crane Festival in Monte Vista Colorado a certain lady friend and I went to. This was my first time to one of these so I wasn't sure what to expect. I came away with just a few shots because it was windy, cloudy, windy, rainy and windy....did I mention it was windy. The wind was blowing at least 30 mph all the times and that wasn't including the gusts. The crane pictures were taken with the Bigma on my K20D and the church was with my Tamron 70-300mm on the K20d. I was either using my tripod or shoting out the window of my truck. Any suggestions Marc.













Thanks everyone.
Jim

Last edited by jbrowning; 10-28-2008 at 09:10 PM.
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10-28-2008, 09:38 PM   #2
Damn Brit
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The church looks like it is in lovely surroundings and those are great shots of the cranes.
I think I like the first two best.
BTW, how did the cranes know when to be there?
10-29-2008, 05:57 AM   #3
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Thanks Gary, yeah the first two are my favorites also. From what I understand is that they stop off there for about a month feeding and resting before they head south. I'm assuming they don't all come in and leave out together. Either that or maybe the town of Monte Vista put out FLYERS hahahaha to the cranes to stop by. Yeah that was lame I know.

Jim

Last edited by jbrowning; 10-29-2008 at 09:05 AM.
10-29-2008, 06:31 AM   #4
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The church shot is well done. For a moment I thought those birds were wild turkeys because they resemble some of the guys at work. Windy and gusting? What to do? Sometimes we have to adapt to nature. In such situations I often try to find foliage that is being blown by the wind and then use slow shutter speeds (less than 1 sec.) and see what wonderful colored blurs have been imparted to the image. Try it, it's not film, so you have nothing to lose.

JMR

10-29-2008, 07:34 AM   #5
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Thanks JMR, I will give that a try next time.

Thanks
Jim
10-29-2008, 08:25 AM   #6
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Thank's for posting. I really love those birds! Church shot is excellent too.
10-29-2008, 09:24 AM   #7
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Thanks Jeff, I have emailed the first picture of the Cranes to the Wildlife Refuge to see if they are interested in using it. The chuch picture I am wanting to get the lines out of it and print it out to see how it looks.

Thanks
Jim

10-29-2008, 09:33 AM   #8
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I like the 2nd and 5th shots the best.

I think the 5th is actually how you want to shoot, use the High ISO to stop down and get shutter speed.

The 2nd seems to be nicely focused, but lacks depth to get everything sharp, I note you were wide open on that one, the others seem to have the focus point not directly on the birds, hence they are not as sharp as they should be (unless of course you were trying for that)

just my thoughs of course,

I am interested to know how much PP you did, any chance you can post similar crops as the camera shot them. As I only have a K10D, high ISO is much more limiting, although I have had some good shots at 1600 shooting RAW.
10-29-2008, 09:41 AM   #9
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Thanks Lowell, actually what I was trying to focus on was the birds eye. It was kinda difficult when they moved. lol

Sure Lowell, when I get home this afternoon I will add the unprocessed but cropped shots to this thread.

thanks
Jim
10-29-2008, 11:34 AM   #10
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Cool shots! We were down at Bosque del Apache a few weeks ago, and by that time only a very few were there (and so were the mosquitos). We managed to get closer to a small group (maybe 60 of them), but not close enough to take anything but poor shots. Wonderful birds!

Lynn
10-29-2008, 12:04 PM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by jbrowning Quote
Thanks Lowell, actually what I was trying to focus on was the birds eye. It was kinda difficult when they moved. lol

Sure Lowell, when I get home this afternoon I will add the unprocessed but cropped shots to this thread.

thanks
Jim
Jim

I look forward to seeing the images

in case you didn't see it, here is big brother Whooping crane, shot last year in texas, as I said, I have a few good shots with the K10D at ISO 1600

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/208249-post1.html

this is sigma 70-200 F2.8 and 2x TC
10-29-2008, 12:10 PM   #12
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Now that is one crispy clear eyeball on that Whooping Crane Lowell. When I get home I will get a couple of the unedited files posted here for you to take a gander at.

Thanks Lynn, from what I understand is in October and March is when these cranes come through heading either north or south. This was my first time over in that direction so I really don't know much about it.

Thanks
Jim
10-29-2008, 04:31 PM   #13
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Hello everyone. Here are the pictures of the cranes unedited other than cropping them down to hopefully about the same sizes as the edited ones.











Thanks
Jim
10-29-2008, 06:18 PM   #14
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Jim

if these are only cropped down, you must have been a lot further away than I was for the whooper.

If that is the case they are about as good as they will get. ther eis just not enough pixle detail left especially in the eyes, to come out like my whooper. Also eye color helps a lot. The whooper has really bright eye's it looks like the sandhill is a little on the red side that makes them much duller in the shot.

Keep at it, and try to check in advance what is expected when you travel. That is how I got the whooper. the tour I took was recommended by a forum member
10-29-2008, 06:47 PM   #15
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Thanks Lowell, I came away from the trip happy. The camera did as well as it could with being in my hands with the skills/knowledge I have. I was kinda shying away from ISO's over 800. But about the last hour I said heck with it. So I put it up to 1600 and so my shutter speed went up and I came away with some decent pictures. I am hoping to get to one of the ponds close by this saturday and sit and watch the birds and really get to play with the K20d and the bigma and get some quality pictures. There are a few herons that are at this pond of an evening.

Also if there is a way I can send you a 8-9mg file let me know and I will send you a few of those photos straight out of the camera.

Take care
Jim
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