A Cappella

For most of the subjects that I shoot, I already have the perfectimage hanging somewhere on the walls inside my head. This doesn'talways happen right away, but usually after my first attempt, havingexperienced the behavior of the subject and seeing the location, Ihave a pretty good idea of what I want. Unfortunately with wildlifephotography, what you want is not necessarily what you get. :-) Whenthe light is perfect, the subject is not there. When the subject isthere, the light is terrible. Or when the light is perfect and thesubject is there, it is in the wrong position, facing away from thecamera, or not doing what you want it to do. Frustrating as this mightsound, it is also one of the reasons wildlife photography is soaddictive - you keep trying to get the shot you're after.

I visit Japan every year, and one of the highlights of the tour arethe beautiful and highly endangered Japanes crane (Grus japonensis,also known as red-crowned crane), the second rarest crane in theworld. The graceful winter dances of these elegant birds are a joy towatch and photograph. I have planned this trip during winter whenthere's usually lots of snow. As these birds are primarily white, theshot I really wanted to get was one where you'd have a whiteforeground (snow), a light gray sky, and the birds on the horizon -different shades of white and gray. As often, this shot proved to bemuch more easy to produce inside my head than in the field. On lastyear's visit though, all the elements briefly worked together inperfect harmony.

It had been snowing continuously on our last morning, so the snow wasfresh and the sky was fully overcast. The light was soft and allaround us, and the cranes were doing their usual thing - throwingtheir heads up in the air and calling as loud as they could. Oncesmall group was walking up a slope, removing all background vegetationresulting in a clean and graphic scene with low contrast and verysubtle detail - just the way I like it. When they simultaneouslystarted calling with their beaks pointed upwards, I took this shot.It's moments like this that I enjoy most, probably because they don'thappen very often. :-)

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 200-400/4.0, 1/800 @ f/10, ISO 400

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Perfect... and made even better by your detailed narrative... Thanks for sharing... Mike

Artistic, creative and professional image. Great work could be on a mag. cover or in a high end book showing the beauty of birds... 7... MJ

Fantastic!

Wonderful spectacle ...

Wonderful shot...

great composition and realiation Heinz

Marsel, an aesthetically appealing image. Superb rendition.

Fantastic image.