Motion…

Another very HARD task was to try to capture a bird in motion…but to capture the blur. You do this by setting your shutter speed pretty slow about 1/25th and trying to move your camera with the bird-at exactly the same speed it’s moving without moving your camera any other direction. You take hundreds of shots and pray that one of them comes out.

The goal is for the head and feet to be clear and the wings and background will be in motion. This was one of my few keepers…

Incoming!

It was crazy to watch these huge birds start landing in the ponds around sunset. It just kept getting more and more crowded. They would just land on top and squirm in between.

This night there were alot of cranes but they weren’t packed in. You drive to different locations, HOPING that the birds have the same spot in mind! Temperatures in the high desert drop very quickly at sundown. In our case back into the 20’s.

Frozen birds in Bosque del Apache

Note the bird on the far right is still frozen in the pond.

Also note that it was 17 degrees and said photographer was also frozen in place. It’s VERY hard to control your settings when it’s nearly pitch black and you can’t feel your hands!