In-flight maneuvers

It was the position/posture of the birds set against the gold sky of sunset

that made me want to capture this moment. Comments and suggestions

are appreciated. Thanks.

Nice!!! Best Regards.

Lovely silhouette against a golden sky.  I tried cropping some of the sky (left and top), and I liked the balance a bit better.......just an idea.  Beautifully shot!

very beautiful image with black and yellow...congrats.regards.

Thanks for the comments.  Christal, I did your suggested crop in my mind's eye, and you make a good point.  I'm on the road and staying in Walmart parking lots and other luxurious locations while on a 2-month road trip, and I admit I don't give enough thought to cropping and other editing considerations when I do my nightly conversions and backups.  I would really want these cranes to be flying into the photo, and right now they are too close to the center.  The upper portion of the sky is relatively pale.  Your crop would eliminate these two problems.

A 2-month road trip?  I'm so envious, and I must have missed that because I haven't been on much lately.  Which states, might I ask?  If you have time to answer.....  :-)  We're avid campers, and I've often wondered about the free camping in Walmart parking lots.  Is that working out well?  Feel free to email me if you'd rather not clog up this thread.

This image is a minimalist beauty. Absolutely aesthetic shapes of birds in motion, so well observed and captured and composed. Reminds me a bit of the first paintings of bulls and wild deer in the caverns of the Cro-Magnon man in Southern France, 35,000 years before present. An outstanding approach to study and mirror the countless beautiful elements and mysteries of our stunning world (despite all their huge problems...).

Bw, Volker

Thanks again for the comments.  This visit to Bosque del Apache really was my first attempt at photographing birds in flight.  I quickly discovered that I don't have the best camera to do this -- the 1DsMkIII with the card I was using could get only about 3 shots before it would pause to write to the card.  These birds change so fast with respect to the position of the wings, their position relative to each other and to the horizon, and countless other elements that I can see the value of taking 10+ shots in very quick succession and choosing the best one of the 10.  Maybe if the head of the lead bird had not "touched" the wing it would have been a "better" photo, and that changes in a fraction of a second.

In addition, I learned the value of camera focus points other than the central point, but I'm not completely comfortable or adept at framing a moving object.  That's undoubtedly why these birds are closer to the center than if they had been stationary and I had time to carefully compose.  I had a lot of fun trying and learning.

This image is very appealing to me in the sense that the birds' wings are caught in an unusual shape and that the shutter speed chosen and being able to compose as presented and uncropped is an excellent achievement. Great image! Regards, Stephen.  -  Lester

Stephen, superb shot. Admirable composition silhouetted birds against golden light.Simple yet striking image.

Oh,  you get this orange colored sky too. Nice flyby.

Cheers.

Lester, A.K., and Bela, thanks for your comments.  Lester, these birds were gliding in for a water landing, so I didn't have to be concerned about wing beats here.  Bela, I love your shot because they are not pure silhouettes -- you have some very wonderful light coming through the feathers.