Then, the magic happens … the years of paying dues, the desire of not just seeing by sharing the spectacle fills the viewfinder and you can go … click! It’s what wildlife photography is all about!
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And while of course we’re hoping for the “best,” there is no “best.” There is only the best we’ve experienced and captured up to that point and that’s what we experienced. At 06:45 the shutters started to fire as enough light permitted photography. Still shooting with the D4s / 800mm, I scanned the cranes in front of the blind. At first, the cranes seemed to be shaking of the morning. Then, in one sudden wave the dancing began and deciding where to point the lens became the biggest challenge. When the wind is from the North, the cranes spend another day. When it’s from the South, they take to skies and head to the nesting grounds. When there is no wind like this morning, I wonder what they think. With the incredible wave of dancing overtaking the entire flock, I think simply celebrating life was on their mind. All I know is all the years coming to this fabled locale and witnessing this magnificent wildlife spectacle paid for itself this morning. The forty five minutes we had with these cranes (that’s all we had this morning) was more than worth it all. Will we be back next year? Of course. Why? Because while this was the best I’ve captured so far, it’s not the best. Better is still waiting for us out there which why we keep going out. It’s real simple when you know, hope is rewarded!
The alarm went off at 06:00, 90min before sunrise. It was still dark outside but the bright full moon gave some hint of who was still on the river. Around 02:30 there was a lift off from the river. Didn’t see it, heard it! More than likely a predator like a coyote made an stab at a free meal which set the flock into the skies. Since I didn’t hear them come back, I was wondering if we’d wake to an empty river. It’s happened before, it’s part of the gamble of spending the night in the blind. At least this night, got some sleep since we didn’t have to deal with a leaky blind in a rain storm.
With as much stealth as we could muster, we crawled out of our sleeping bags, got everything packed back up so we have space to set up camera gear and get ready to work. Oh, what a cup of hot coffee would do right now. Wait, no, been locked in the box for 14hrs, scratch that thought! Around 06:30 there is a hint of the coming day so I peaked out of the blind. The cranes, they are still there! Not nearly as many as we had at sunset but as I like to remind folks when shooting critters, it just takes one to make your day! So with that glimpse, the window gets closed and camera gear assembled.
With some stiffness, I get the D4s / 800mm mounted on the Gitzo. With it in place, chair ready and bundled up in everything I had with me, the window was opened and you can see the view above. While a long lens helps, the subject has to be physically close to make it all work. As I scan around, I see birds everywhere and they were the closest we’d ever had, but still not that magical distance we desired. Then as the light brighten the flock began to move as they often do. Then some birds flew in and they were right in front of our blind. This was a first and the closet we’d ever had the Sandhills to our lenses. Mark & I looked at each other with big smiles. The day had started on the right note, hope awakened!
When I tell folks I’m going to Nebraska, they screw up their face in a tight wad and ask, “WHY?” I can tell they’ve not heard about the magic that is Nebraska (you should check out Bill Frakes Nebraska Project!). I have so not tapped that magic that is Nebraska but that one little bit I have, keeps bringing me back again and again and when you realize it’s to be locked in a 4×8 box with another photographer and all our gear for a minimum of 16 hours, you gotta think there is something special. The Hope …
With a crash, at 16:30 our driver with what seem some glee, slammed the door to our blind saying, “I’m locking your in now.” (There is an emergency number inside the blind for the locksmith, no kidding!) Where the day before we had solid gray skies and the rain storm that night of biblical proportions, today was the total opposite … bald skies! I hate bald skies. So there we sat waiting for four hours to see what would come of the evening. We bring our own seats and this time, I brought an extra cushion so my butt wouldn’t get up and walk out on me. Around 19:00, Mark pointed to the west and said, “Clouds!” Sure enough, two small puff balls had started to form on the western horizon. But no birds.
At 19:30 we set up our gear on our tripods and got ready for what we hoped would be a fly in. With D4s / 800mm mounted on the Gitzo, I looked out through the viewfinder at an empty river. About fifteen minutes later, we heard the first distinct Sandhill call off in the distance. Then with a thunderous explosion, the sky opened up! Thousands upon thousands of cranes descended from the heavens and for the first time for me ever in a blind, they landed right in front of us! The river was soon solid gray. And they kept coming, and coming and coming until long after is was too dark to shoot. There are no words to describe the spectacle nor the inner elation that finally we were witnessing the magic we’d so been seeking! It was simply, hope renewed.
Many, many years ago at one of our old Photo Marketing weekends, we had a participant, kinda quiet with his arm in a cast. Come to find out he’s a pastor and that he had crashed his motorcycle. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Mark is unique to say the least. One of the last things he said to me that weekend was, “Ever want to come out to the Platt Rive for the Sandhill Cranes, I’ve got a blind.” We’ve been doing it ever since.
I’ve spent April Fools for many years now in Nebraska, waiting to be locked in a box for 16+ hours in hopes of capturing that one image I’ve always wanted. At the beginning of the season there are as many as 100k Sandhill Cranes on the Platt, most are Lessers. They arrive near Kearny, NE on Valentines Day, peak around St Patricks day and are all gone my Tax Day. It’s a brief window and looking for the behavior I want to photograph, the Dancing, the window is even smaller. So each year Mark gets a blind reserved at Rowe Sanctuary and off we go.
So far, I’ve not gotten the photo I envisioned, not even close so we started this trip with the hope of scoring that shot. And the day started out great. Cranes were in the air when we arrived, circling overhead as they do in the afternoon and they move about. Nearly half of the cranes has already taken off north which left 50k on the river, I only need one for my photo so the odds were still good. Shooting with the D750 / 80-400VR3, these masters of the skies performed. Then as it was time to get locked in the blind, 1630, the skies closed in and an hour before sunset, it was so dark, even ISO3200 wasn’t going to help. Sleeping in the blind all night on the mud floor with temps getting down to 30 or below, we woke to the same, miserable, gray, dark skies. Then, at 0645 a Bald Eagle, probably the same one from years past who has done the same dastardly deed, flew down the river spooking all the cranes off the river. ALL! And that was it, the day was done until 1630 when we got back in the blind again. And the hope continues ….
Did you hear that our Africa Safari Adventure is now out for you to watch? The love notes are flying in and we’re very grateful. But some are saying there weren’t aware it was out, so here’s the news. Being invited to Africa with Images in Africa, my bud and very talented Adam from Kelby Training made an epic class from our safari. Did we have fun … check this out …
and how did I pack for this adventure? Here ya go …
And the best part … we’re going back 2015 and in 2016! And if that’s not enough Africa for you (and it really isn’t), there is our January 2015 issue of the BT Journal devoted to this safari. So, here’s some fun, learning, photography, biology just for you.
During our Georgia Nature Photographers Association day workshops, we were at the Callaway Gardens Birds of Prey Show. They did a marvelous 90min presentation for just us. They had flights and birds on the glove for folks to photograph. The whole time, they explained just a ton of biology while they worked the birds. From the photographic side, it was a great learning opportunity to learn how to combine biology with technology. The two main things were panning and flash. The panning seemed obvious, photographing the birds in flight from perch to glove and back again. The problem though is when birds fly, they don’t fly in a straight line but rather, dip down in their flight path and then wing up the last moment to the perch. So in this situation this meant the birds would dip down so the folks heads and a hideous background came into play. So the conventional flight shot using panning while would result in a sharp image, the rest of the elements in the photo would suck. Not good.
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One of the main rolls of a wildlife photographer is to solve problems. In this case, using biological knowledge to incorporate technology to make the photo is our job. So if the goal is to get the raptor in flight photo (this is a Harris Hawk) and panning isn’t an option, what can you do? Rather than go with a long lens and the pan, I went short and to stop the action, flash. Shooting with the Df, 14-24AFS and SB-910, I talked with Christina and had her and the glove where the Harris would land higher than me. Why? I wanted to catch that moment the Harris landed, wings fully spread and primary feathers opened up. I wanted the feeling of flight. So before the show I stuck my hand in the air with the basic background I figured I would have and took a shot for the ambient light exposure and made corrections. I then took a shot with the SB-910 turned on (see the shadows on my hand filled in). We need flash to not only fill in the shadows since we are shooting up towards the sky, but also to freeze motion. We need to meld the two exposures, ambient and flash. Then when the Harris Hawk came in, I made its photo. The marvel of TTL flash and Custom Setting e4 make the exposure really very simple to accomplish. They key here most don’t understand is the speed of the flash for freezing. Many thing Shutter Speed is needed but if we put the burst of the light from the flash in shutter speed terms, the slowest shutter speed of a flash is 1/2000 and the fastest can be nearly 1/24000! Are these the best photos? Na, but they were fun to do and great teaching tools and thats how you want to approach these opportunities so when they great opportunity in the wild presents itself, you have the tools to make the photo!
