Today’s post comes from second trip to a blind at Rowe Sanctuary, on the Platte River in Nebraska. This blind visit was on my last evening on the Platte River and I still had one goal that hadn’t been reached … to capture cranes flying in front of the sun, or in front of a waning moon. As so often occurs, persistence paid off!
As we entered the blind on this last evening, I had a lot of doubts as to the photo opportunities we would have. A cold front was coming in (temperatures during the day reached 92F, which ended up at ~45F by the evening!), along with an extremely high winds (wind speed reached up to ~50 mph). So, I wasn’t very optimistic about having a chance to reach my goal!
As we settled in the blind, the wind was making the view quite distracting … the wind was blowing so much dust around that not only was the air “hazy”, but the birds seemed to be having a difficult time maneuvering overhead as they reached the Platte River:
But as the sun began setting, the winds eased up a bit, although still windy. But this resulted in better views of the setting sun and the incoming cranes:
As observed in the above photo, the cranes began moving around a lot, even after settling on the river. But things continued to get better! And finally … birds in front of the sun!
A few frames later, I captured what I was looking for (this next image was cropped a bit, to bring the view even closer):
So, no “bird over moon” shot, but I went home with my “bird over sun” shot :o)
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF 100-400mm, f/4.5-5.6 IS lens, with Canon 1.4x TC, shot from 460mm to 560mm
- Bogen 3221 tripod, with Giottos ballhead, captured from a blind on the river
- ISO 1600 (all photos)
- Aperture f/16 and f/18
- Shutter 1/400 sec. to 1/800 sec.