Bosque del Apache - 1

This is the first of several installments on my trip to New Mexico to photograph the Sandhill Cranes. This was a photography trip, loosely guided by a couple of pros who've been here many times. We got tips on where to go when for the best chances of good photos.



I too LOTS of photos...over 1200 the first morning between 6:30 and 9:00. Thus, it is taking me a looong time to delete the ones out of focus or empty then process and rate the remainder. There were about 830 left in the folder when I finished culling. You're only now seeing these because processing takes a long time.

The pink is the reflection of sky light by the rising sun.

There were hundreds of this majestic birds at the pond where set up so I have a ton of these birds-wading-in-the-water-and-waking-up shots. When you are standing there, seeing and hearing all the birds (and freezing), it is really hard to not keep clicking the shutter.

It seems that they fly to the nearby fields of grain to feed (planted just for them) during the day and return to the ponds to sleep standing in the water.

When they take off, the use a running motion to get up to flight speed. Several times I only got a photo of the splashes in the water...no birds.

As the sun continued to rise, the birds increasingly took to the aire to head out for their first breakfast.

By the time the sun was over the horizon, I could find them in multiples in flight.

I even found that some of the images worked better in monochrome.

Before the birds take flight, there is usually some period of them "leaning" in the direction they intend to go when they take off. We were given to believe that this is likely related to them getting a sense of the wind. Taking off into the wind makes it easier. It was pretty calm on this particular morning.

Another monochrome-ish image. The lights and darks are tinted, respectively, blue and red to give the image a little more umph.

To give you a taste of more to come, there were also hundreds of Snow Geese. Occasionally, they get spooked and take to flight en masse for a spectacular view.