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This year, for the first time, I detoured from Bosque to photograph at the nearby Bernado Wildlife Management Area (note: link is to a PDF). The crane action at Bosque was a little slow, both because the corn fields failed1, and because the crane pools were frozen solid. Bernardo, on the other hand, had both corn and cranes in abundance.
Bernardo was chock full of cranes; I quickly made some pleasing flight images.2 However, there were almost too many birds. I couldn’t quite figure out how to make an interesting of the thousands of cranes gathered to feed at the edge of a cornfield. I came up with a few decent takes (some of which I’ll post shortly.) But nothing that I was completely excited about. Just too much detail, too much jumble. Then, just as I was about to pack up my gear and drive back to town, the last rays of the setting sun spotlit a single crane in the field. I’m not sure what created the mix of light and shadow — probably some nearby trees. But whatever the source of the light, I finally had a pleasing image.
- Again! Is it really that hard to find someone who can reliably grow corn at the refuge? ↩
- Bernardo has a reputation for being a tough place to photograph. Supposedly there are too many power lines for a good shot. I’m not sure how it got that reputation, but I had no difficulties with power lines intruding into my photos. ↩
