These are the best images from a quick trip to the Monte Vista NWR at the very end of March with my dad and our photographic friends, Mark and Claudia Brown. Conditions were not quite as good as last year (we were a little late for the peak of the crane migration), but we still had plenty to shoot. The image at the top of this post is easily my favorite from the trip. It is unusual to get this close to a roosting crane, let alone in such great light. Since I couldn’t get a direct sun angle without trespassing, I picked an angle where the sidelight defined the bird’s feathers. Fortunately, the bird was oblivious to me, giving me plenty of time to work into a good shooting position.
Here are some other images from the trip. (This min-gallery may look a little funny if you’re reading this with an RSS reader. Sorry.) Click on a thumbnail for a larger view.
Note: I posted some landscape shots from the same trip here and here.
I started a long blog post about my experience shooting at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge over the last three years, years, the difference between the conditions this year and last, the reasons why I made various images, etc. Then I realized that the post was ponderous and boring. Instead, here is a simple gallery of the best images from my trip this winter, plus a so-so quail image that I included for sentimental reasons. Hopefully the images can speak for themselves. (Click on a thumbnail for a larger view and for a slideshow).
I should be camping tonight, getting ready for an early morning shoot in Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow. Only one problem: there is absolutely nowhere to camp in Estes Park on short notice. So, instead I’m working through some of the images in my que. I have just posted a new gallery of images that I shot at the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge in March. Over all the refuge is only “so-so” for crane shooting, but the crane-pool sunrises with steam rising off the pool were spectacular. Here are a few more favorites from the new gallery:
Visit my Monte Vista gallery for more images
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After spending way, way too much time editing and tinkering with my images from Bosque, I have finally posted a collection of my favorite images from the trip. See the whole collection in the Bosque 2008 Gallery.
If you enjoy the images, please let me know in the comments.
I continue to wade through the images from my trip to Bosque Del Apache. I’m making progress . . . slowly. In the meantime, here are two of my favorite “blur” images from the trip. The “Sandhill Calligraphy” image was fairly easy to make, though I was fortunate to capture both birds at the same point in their wing beat. The 2nd image, a pan blur, was much, much more difficult. I made dozens of images before I captured one with a pleasing background and where the bird’s eye is sharp.
I apologize for the derth of posts over the last couple of weeks — I was away shooting at Bosque, and then preoccupied with work and holiday shopping. In any event, I’ve finally had a chance to start seriously editing the 5000+ images that I captured at Bosque Del Apache earlier this month. Based on my initial review, I’m pretty sure that the image above is my favorite from the trip — and I made it about ten minutes after I set up on my very first day. The rest of the trip was somewhat anticlimactic.
More images after the jump
Continue reading First Bosque Images
