Help me photograph an elusive crane!

Mr. moderator -- would you consider adding a category like "subject

specific question?" (subject, in this case, being the subject of the

photograph -- It might be helpful for people to have such a question

as I do -- like "how to photograph birds?" or "how to photograph

fish?").<p>

I have been photographing the birds on a lake near where I live. I

have seen a single magnificent great blue crane (I think I have I.D.ed

him right) on several occassions but haven't manged to get a good

picture of him. My equipment is rather limited and I don't have a

budget for more -- I'm scrimping to buy film as it is -- I'm using an

older manual focus body with a cheap 500mm f8 lens (non-mirror preset

type). I also have an 80-200mm and other (shorter) lenses. Because of

equipment limitations, I am shooting print film in 200 and 400 speed.

I've tried erecting a small blind made of cardboard so I can get

closer, but he is wise to me --- the other birds ignore me behind my

cardboard wall but the crane has refused to return since I put it up.

Later in the day, though, I am able to observe him from far off with

binoculars but he does not let me get close enough for the frame-

filling image I want. <p>My problems: <br>1)The 500mm lens is hard to

focus -- the microprism goes black so I have to use the matte part to

see focus and for shy birds like this, 500mm doesn't seem to be long

enough! Eventually I want to be able to replace my old camera and

lenses, but when I look at the prices, I doubt I will be able to afford

anything 500mm long in Minolta, Nikon or Canon AF. Maybe I could

eventually afford one of the 400mm f5.6 teles... If I work on my

technique, will I be able to get closer without the birds like the

crane flying away, no matter what system I am using? The f8 maximum

aperture is a serious handicap!<br>2)To photograph that fantastic

crane, should I build my blind and leave it up for a few days? Would

it be better to be in something like a small tent(where I am hidden on

all sides) rather than just behind a cardboard wall? And should I

crawl into the blind when it is still dark before I expect the birds to

be awake and active and wait? If so, how long should I wait?

should I build my blind and leave it up for a few days? Would it be better to be in something like a small tent (where I am hidden on all sides) rather than just behind a cardboard wall? And should I crawl into the blind when it is still dark before I expect the birds to be awake and active and wait? If so, how long should I wait?

 

 

Yes, yes, yes. If you�re right, and if it is definitely a blue crane, then you live in South Africa or Namibia. Right?

Is this the one?

 

http://www.savingcranes.org/species/blue.asp

 

In fact that is a good news, because all 15 species of cranes are very cleaver, and some of them will allow you to get closer then others. Florida Sandhill Cranes and Blue Cranes are probably among the ones that tolerate shorter distances.

In any case you should have a hide with 4 sides and a roof, and you must go inside before sunrise, and you have to leave it after sunset.

 

About your equipment limitations I will only say that 500 mm seams long enough for a crane picture, after all, Cranes are among the biggest birds, and a Blue crane stands more then 3 feet above ground. Meaning that you have to be at 50 feet to make a portrait. Keep that in mind when you plan were to put the hide.

While I don't know in what part of the country you live, I would guess that it might be a Great Blue Heron. I have had problems getting close to them in the past, using a 300mm or 400mm lens. I eventually got a 500mm and a 1.4 TC that has improved my luck somewhat. My best shots in Michigan's UP were from a car window, slowly coasting up to the bird, while it fed in a wetland area. Even where I live now (a Chicago western suburb), they can still be elusive. Sometimes you just have to be still and wait. If you can camouflage yourself you will havea much better chance. It may be that the birds in your area are not acclimated to people.

 

Alex

Hi Alfred:

 

I'm also guessing it's a great blue heron -- tall, magnificent bird and extremely skittish. I imagine they have to be very careful about predators as they can't get off the ground or water in a huge hurry.

 

Can't help you too much on getting close to that one bird. A blind may work if you put it in the right place, which means observing the bird's habits for a while.

 

A 500mm lens, though, should be perfectly adequate for GBH. Longer lenses are much trouble to use. And don't despair too much about autofocus. Unless you're taking pictures of birds in flight -- another kettle of fish, let's say -- autofocus adds little and often gets in the way.

 

Have fun and post some pictures for us.

Whether crane or heron (where do you live?), some individuals are just impossible to get near enough for a picture. The particular specimen, the species, the location, the time of year, breeding cycle, experience with people (good or bad) and many other things all affect how hard it is to get close to a bird.

 

Florida in winter is easy, some birds will let you walk to within 20 or 30 feet of them and photograph for hours; the northeast USA in summer is really tough as I found herons to fly if a human is visible 200 or 300 or more yards away - and they fly far away! One bird I watched through an autumn into winter would fly as soon as my truck was visible a 1/4 mile away at first, but as the weather got tougher, I could approach to within 50 feet as long as I stayed in my vehicle. When the bird overwintered and there was snow on the ground it became very accepting of people in vehicles around and even tolerated some walking, if they weren't aware of the bird and not approaching it. That winter was, fortunately for the heron, one of the mildest I've ever experienced in that part of Connecticut and he lived through it, but the difficulties made it accomodate the extensive human presence to survive.

 

A blind will probably work, but you must be completely concealed on all sides and the top and you must learn to move very slowly, even when you think you can't be seen, like when the sun is behind you and your shadow is on the front of the screening material. I have often had to disguise my face and wear dark glasses to hide my eyes as well. Watch your subject and see if there are certain times of day it comes to your location - get into the blind an hour before and don't leave until you are sure it is well away from the area, you don't want it to associate your blind with humans. Be absolutely quiet and careful about camera noise - if the bird reacts to the first shutter click, don't shoot any more until it calms down, eventually it may get used to the sound and let you shoot as you will.

 

A 500mm lens should be plenty long enough for this subject, if everything else works OK. But be aware, you've given yourself a major educating assignment and the photography is not the most difficult part of it!

Oh my -- how embarassing -- of course it is a heron -- I was rereading the bird book right before posting (after having spent most the morning waiting for my long legged friend to make an appearance) and was at the part about CRANES -- to make it even more embarassing, the book itself (Stoke's Field Guide to birds) has a picture of a heron on the cover...so yes, it is a heron and the photographer, in this case, is an addlepated fool..<p>thanks.

OK, a few things. Herons as pointed out can be very skittish, especially if they're not used to a human presence. As Frank pointed out, they are reasonably easy to shoot in Florida. This photo was taken at Ding Darling with a 300mm lens from behind a bush and the bird didn't even blink an eye. Where I live in NH, we have tons of Blue Herons but I've found them very tough to photograph. If they're intent on feeding, I think you may have a better chance on sneaking up on them. Also, as you approach, stop and freeze as soon as you see those head feathers pop-up, it's a sign that the birds

getting alarmed about something. Wear a hat...your head feathers flapping around are also a sign of alarm. If you can't get close, get creative. Make the bird part of a larger scene instead of the overdone closeup bird portrait. Leave room in the frame for a reflection, or catch it doing something in its environment to make it more interesting. I have to admire your persistence anyway!<div></div>

I'd like to make a couple of suggestions that the others haven't. First, I've been very pleased with the results I have obtained from a new film called Kodak Ultra 400. It costs no more, and perhaps it's a little less, than the Kodak Gold 400 that is available everywhere. Ask for Kodak Ultra 400 at a good camera store, or shop in magazines from one of the mail order purveyors. Kodak claims to have developed this film for scanners. For creatures as skittish as great blue herons, 400 speed film is a good choice. The color saturation may not be as good as that of slower films, but you can shoot a faster shutter speed, and that's a handy thing, especially in poor light.

 

Second, thanks to digital photography, your 200mm lens may have more reach than you know. I suggest you take a look at the technology, especially of scanners. I don't mean having your film processed and getting your pictures back on a CD or floppy desk. I am thinking you have your film processed and you (or someone else) can then run them through a film and slide scanner (by all means not a flatbed scanner.

 

You can increase the size of your picture when you scan it. I typically scan my 35mm photos at 1360dpi which makes them 3 or 4 times larger than my computer screen. Then, since I scan and view them in PaintShop Pro 7 software (PhotoShop and PhotoShop LE are other favorites), I can adjust the size of the bird to anything between big and maybe blurry to small and sharp. The software has tools for cropping and changing the size of the image.

 

I use a Canon CanoScan 2710 scanner that costs about $500. That's a lot less than the cost of a 500mm lens, and I don't have to carry it around with me.<div></div>

Probably the easiest method is to pick up a waterfowler's catalog (i.e Herter's, Timothy's, etc.), order the Great Blue Heron confidence decoy, and take a picture of that instead of the real thing...

 

Herons are tough. Out here on the plains where our rivers are shallow and wind back and forth, I can usually get within decent range IF I use full camo (including headnet and gloves)and sneak up on bends in the river very slowly and very quietly. On lakes and ponds it's pretty much crawl into the blind before daylight. And you're going to have to expend a little energy building a convincing-looking blind. A cardboard box won't cut it with a heron. I've built duck blinds worthy of a DU cover that failed miserably when it came to herons. However, herons do tend to hunt the same areas so it shouldn't be too much of a problem patterning him. It's the fooling him part that's hard...

Since this Heron is very wary, you may consider visiting some local parks having lakes where Herons are present. They are generally present on lakes where there are lots of fish and shallow waters. If you don't know, ask some local expert birder who will tell you exactly which lake might have them! <p>This is based on my personal experience, I've seen two places, where at the first place, which is a wildlife area, Herons fly off while alerting all other birds with my first appearance. I know another place, where they are within 40 feet and completely ignoring humans, both places are in the same city.

I've always found Great Blues very wary. Any sort of movement or approach seems to scare them off, at least here in New Jersey.

 

My best success has been staying in the car and shooting with a long lens at places like Brigantine NWR in NJ. Usually any attempt to get out of the car and set up a tripod results in the bird flying off, no matter how quiet and careful I try to be.<div></div>

Several people have emailed me to suggest I go somewhere else where the birds may be a little less camera shy -- but this small lake is in a small nature preserve very near my house that has been developed on all sides -- I decided to document (to the best of my ability) the preserve itself and all of the animals that use the preserve as nesting or foraging space in hopes of promoting its preservation from eventual development. Thus, you see, it is important that I shoot THIS heron. But thank you -- I will attempt to rig up a shooting blind that is a little more sophisticated (hopefully to start more shooting by next weekend); I'll keep you posted -- many thanks; I could not have asked this in a better place.

Bob Atkins -- that is a FANTASTIC picture - thank you; we must have crossed posts.

Very nice shot, Bob.

 

Herons do show up occasionally in Central Park in Manhattan periodically. Some of them must just be into hanging out on a nice day checking the people out like the rest of us.

Concerning Bill Sullivan�s sugestions, let me add that if your planing to share your photos on Internet or to show them on a computer screen, then digitally enlarging your pictures may be a very good idea, but otherwise, forget it. If you start with a pour resolution of a sheep lens, and a fast film, you will not only enlarge the bird size, but you will also enlarge the grain, an the lack of resolution.

 

Unless with the state of the art optics and a slow film, the results are unprintable, and even that way, cropping more then 50% of the image, will most of the times render pour quality prints, only acceptable in small size.

 

About the speed of the film, I think that in order to capture an image of a heron on a posture like Cowan Stark or Bob Atkins did, you don�t need a fast film. When fishing, herons stand absolutely still, and even with a 100 asa film, at f8 on a sunny day, you will have a 1/500 shutter speed, that seems more than enough if your using a sturdy tripod.

Unless you planing to capture some action, like the heron flying or in the moment she catch a fish, If I were you, I wouldn�t sacrifice to much resolution and saturation for speed.

I live in Richmond, Virginia and the photographing Herons are very easy. In the summer on the James river there are Herons everywhere also in virginia there is a ferry that crosses a river near the coast of virginia and while on the ferry I have gotten as close as 10 ft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! unfornutely I had run out of film but I am going back to photograph them.

Alfred:

 

One other comment, mostly a perspective on equipment that I've gained from watching my son (now 15) learn bird photography over the past three years.

 

He started with a Pentax K-1000 and a 70-210mm zoom lens and a huge desire to get close enough to photograph birds well. In those days 400 speed print film was fine, even 800 speed. For a year or more I told him we'd buy and process all the Costco film and processing he wanted to shoot on birds. He shot hundreds, more like thousands of pictures. He entered them in the county fair and won awards. He sent them off to magazines and won a contest. Not national park megabirds but finches and sparrows in the back yard and the woods next door, stuff that's impossibly small and nervous.

 

Eventually he began to look critically at his photos and tighten up technique. He made the jump to 100 speed slide film. Finally, in the past year, he bought himself (with parental help) a Canon Elan and a 300mm IS lens with a couple TCs. He's had more photos published. He's as far from an equipment freak as any photographer I've ever known and has more fun.

 

My point (besides enjoying the opportunity to exercise parental pride) is that bird photography (perhaps like all photography) is a process, rather than a destination. Don't despair about equipment. We can't all afford that 600mm f4 high tech glass. Don't even despair about not getting too close to the heron. Just enjoy the fact you're out there doing it and have the pictures to prove it.

Trevor's story about the 10 ft approach to the heron illustrates a very important principle of nature photography. Your best opportunities always occur when the camera is (a) empty, (b) jammed, or © back home in the closet. I think you can be sure that if you ride that ferry with film in the camera, the herons will back off to about 2 miles.

For some reason the Night Herons are not so skittish as the Great Blue. I can get within about 10 feet of them and no trouble. The tend to stay in on place, staring at the water. The Great Blues plod along in the shallows looking for goodies. This gives you a chance to predict where they are going so you can get set up for them. I saw one yesterday, but it saw me trying to get ahead of it and took off. I'll try again today.

 

Alex

Well, Brian's observation is right on for sure. I don't think I've ever in twenty-odd years of doing photography misloaded a roll of 35mm film, having been taught from the very beginning to watch the rewind knob and make sure it's moving when advancing to the first frame, but, sure enough, today there were two Black-crowned Night Herons passing through Central Park, and I thought I got a dozen shots in before they flew off. Went to rewind the roll and ... I guess there's always a first time.