{"id":16176,"date":"2013-09-27T07:21:32","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T11:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=16176"},"modified":"2013-09-27T07:21:32","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T11:21:32","slug":"worlds-most-beautiful-crane-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2013\/09\/27\/worlds-most-beautiful-crane-species\/","title":{"rendered":"World&#8217;s Most Beautiful Crane Species?"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tr>\n<td>ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=center>\n<p>This image of a courting group of Grey-crowned Cranes was created with the Todd-pod mounted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/754508-REG\/Canon_5125B002_EF_600mm_f_4L_IS.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\/kw\/CA6004LIFEF2\/DFF\/d10-v2-t1-xCA6004LIFEF2\" target=\"_blank\">Canon EF 600mm f\/4L IS II USM lens<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/732113-USA\/Canon_4409B002_1_4x_EF_Extender_III.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\/kw\/CA14XEF3\/DFF\/d10-v2-t1-xCA14XEF3\" target=\"_blank\">Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter)<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/827036-REG\/Canon_5253B002_EOS_1D_X_Digital_SLR.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\/kw\/CAE1DX\/DFF\/d10-v2-t1-xCAE1DX\" target=\"_blank\">Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera<\/a>. ISO 1250 Evaluative metering +2\/3 stop: 1\/1000 sec. at f\/6.3 in Tv mode in very early morning light. <\/p>\n<p>Two sensors to the left of the central sensor\/AI Servo Surround\/Rear Focus AF on the base of the wing of the bird with its wings raised, active at the moment of exposure. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/09\/13\/rear-focus-tutorial\/\">here<\/a> if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"728\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/mer54715.datafeedfile.com\/widget\/aff_widget_prdt_generate-2.0.php?aff_num=7226&#038;aff_net=1&#038;size=728x90&#038;mode=m&#038;bucket_num=3436&#038;link_target=y&#038;sid=\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\"><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iFrame.<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Grey-crowned Crane<\/h3>\n<p>From the moment that I saw my first Grey-crowned Crane, on safari with Todd Gustafson, Patty Ardoin, her late husband Wes, and many others, probably in 2001, I fell in love.  When I visited Tanzania fairly regularly, we did see this species fairly often, but they were somewhat hard to come by in the winter months.  On the Summer Safari last August they were abundant, and best of all, they were flying around and dancing and courting. That made for exciting times at Ngorongoro Crater.  I can&#8217;t wait to get back next year.  <\/p>\n<h3>Image Quiz<\/h3>\n<p>#1: With focus on the crane that was farthest away, why was there enough depth-of-field (at only f\/6.3) to render the closer cranes sharp?<br \/>\n#2: With small areas of white in the frame, why didn&#8217;t the +2\/3 stop exposure compensation burn the highlights?<br \/>\n#3: Why Tv mode? <\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>ngg_shortcode_1_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=center>\n<p>This image of a landing Grey-crowned Crane was created with the Todd-pod mounted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/754508-REG\/Canon_5125B002_EF_600mm_f_4L_IS.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\/kw\/CA6004LIFEF2\/DFF\/d10-v2-t1-xCA6004LIFEF2\" target=\"_blank\">Canon EF 600mm f\/4L IS II USM lens<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/732111-USA\/Canon_4410B002_2x_EF_Extender_III.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\/kw\/CA2XEF3\/DFF\/d10-v2-t1-xCA2XEF3\" target=\"_blank\">Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter)<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/827036-REG\/Canon_5253B002_EOS_1D_X_Digital_SLR.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\/kw\/CAE1DX\/DFF\/d10-v2-t1-xCAE1DX\" target=\"_blank\">Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera<\/a>. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop: 1\/1000 sec. at f\/8 in Manual mode in early morning light. <\/p>\n<p>Central sensor (by necessity)\/AI Servo Expand\/Rear Focus AF just caught the base of the bird&#8217;s neck, active&#8211;of course&#8211;at the moment of exposure. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/09\/13\/rear-focus-tutorial\/\">here<\/a> if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.<\/p>\n<p>See the animated GIF below for the before and after comparison. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"728\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/mer54715.datafeedfile.com\/widget\/aff_widget_prdt_generate-2.0.php?aff_num=7226&#038;aff_net=1&#038;size=728x90&#038;mode=m&#038;bucket_num=3433&#038;link_target=y\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\"><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iFrame.<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>World&#8217;s Most Beautiful Crane Species?<\/h3>\n<p>With their grey body feathers, reddish brown flight feathers, soft white wing coverts with a faint yellow wash to them, red wattles, white face ovals with the red accent above it, black caps, light blue irises, and their amazing gold crests, it is hard to image a more beautiful crane species. <\/p>\n<p>If you have photographed a more beautiful crane species, we would love to hear from you. <\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/anim-gif-Grey-crowned-Crane-landing-AFTER-CROP-_Y5O7324-Ngorongoro-Crate-Tanzania.gif\" class=\"aligncenter\" \/>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>The Image Optimization<\/h3>\n<p>After leveling and color correcting the TIFF that had been converted in Canon Digital Photo Professional (see our DPP Conversion Guide <a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=359\">here<\/a>), I cleaned up the background.  Most of the distracting dark spots were zebra poop. As usual, clean-up was done with the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, and a series of small Quick Masks. I ran my NIK 50-50 only on the bird after selecting it with the Quick Selection Tool.<\/p>\n<p>All of the above is detailed in our <a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=252\">Digital Basics File<\/a>.  Digital Basics is an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips including Digital Eye Doctor techniques, several different ways of expanding canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, creating and using time-saving Actions, and tons more.<\/p>\n<h3>2014 Tanzania Summer Safari<\/h3>\n<p>If you are interested in joining us in Tanzania next summer please shoot me an <a href=\"mailto:samandmayasgrandpa@att.net\">e-mail<\/a><\/center> and I will be glad to forward you the PDF with dates, itinerary, and price.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>ngg_shortcode_2_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=center>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Flight Plan<\/h3>\n<p>After spending more than two months (part time) editing Jim Neiger&#8217;s great new e-Guide, Flight Plan, I learned a ton about flight photography. His explanation of the bumping the focus technique finally sunk in. Using this technique has improved my flight photography by leaps and bounds, especially when doing flight photography with an f\/4 super-telephoto lens and the 2X III tele-converter (as above in the landing crane image).  I remember bumping the focus as I tracked the crane on final approach and was thrilled with the sharpness of the two keepers from the short series. <\/p>\n<p>You learn more about Flight Plan <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdsasart.com\/2013\/09\/24\/birds-as-art-bulletin-449\/\">here<\/a> or order a copy by clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=379\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<h3>First <em>Flight Plan<\/em> Feedback<\/h3>\n<p>Markus Jais&#8217;s paraphrased <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdsasart.com\/2013\/09\/24\/birds-as-art-bulletin-449\/\">Bulletin #449<\/a> comment:   <\/p>\n<p>September 27, 2013 at 2:20 am <\/p>\n<p><em>Bought Jim\u2019s birds in flight e-guide yesterday and already read parts of it. Absolutely fantastic. The best resource out there on photographing birds in flight. Anyone interested in improving their flight photography must(!) read this. Many lessons are also helpful for other subjects like running mammals or swimming ducks. The tips on hand holding are fantastic. I often handhold my new EF 4\/200-400L IS 1.4x (e.g. for marmots, swimming geese, etc) because I am faster and more flexible than with a tripod.<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to you and Jim for publishing this. I will recommend this to anyone who asks me about photographing birds in flight.<\/p>\n<p>Markus<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Holland Heating Up<\/h3>\n<p>Pending the arrival of promised checks, we now have six folks for the Touch of Holland Tulip IPT.  Click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdsasart.com\/include-pages\/ipt-updates\/\">here<\/a> and scroll down for details. <\/p>\n<h3>Bosque IPTs<\/h3>\n<p>For information on both the 7-Day and the recently announced short version of the 2013 Bosque IPTs please click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdsasart.com\/include-pages\/ipt-updates\/\">here<\/a> and scroll down. <\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&#038;H here!<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&#038;H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post.  Remember, B&#038;H ain&#8217;t just photography!<\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><A href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/buy\/Photography-Deals\/ci\/18560\/N\/4144359020?BI=6633&#038;KW=&#038;KBID=7226&#038;img=photography.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/images\/affiliateimages\/photography.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/affiliates.bhphotovideo.com\/showban.asp?id=7226&#038;img=photography.jpg\" border=0><\/center><\/p>\n<h3>Amazon<\/h3>\n<p>Everyone buys something from Amazon, be it a big lens or deodorant.  Support the blog by starting your search by starting your search by clicking on the logo-link below.  No purchase is too small to be appreciated; they all add up.  Why make it a habit?   Because I make it a habit of bringing you new images and information on an almost daily basis. <\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=arthurmorrisb-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=48&#038;l=ur1&#038;category=amazonhomepage&#038;f=ifr\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" scrolling=\"no\" border=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" style=\"border:none;\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center> <\/p>\n<h3>Typos<\/h3>\n<p>On all blog posts, feel free to <a href=\"mailto:samandmayasgrandpa@att.net\">e-mail<\/a><\/center> or leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors.  Just be right. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> ngg_shortcode_3_placeholder <\/p>\n<p>This image of a courting group of Grey-crowned Cranes was created with the Todd-pod mounted Canon EF 600mm f\/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera. ISO 1250 Evaluative metering +2\/3 stop: 1\/1000 sec. at f\/6.3 in Tv mode in very [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[460],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-460","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}