...I really appreciate your comments.
If I may expand a bit on the cranes shot. To some it may look like sort of a mistake, or at best a happy accident. In fact, it was neither. With this type of image you do often shoot a lot and sort of hope for the best, but there was a definite pre-conceived idea behind the shot even before I began firing off frames in rapid succession.
The concept was, trying to capture somewhat of an impressionistic view of these magnificent large birds in flight. Not a frozen, stop action shot. They have a fluid gracefulness that I thought lends itself to more flowing, semi-blurred, semi-sharp approach. Much like using a slow shutter speed on a waterfall or flowing stream to enhance the feeling of movement.
Whether I succeeded or not, and whether the image "works" could be another topic of discussion elsewhere I suppose, but I felt I had accomplished what I was after in this shot...the only frame out of dozens where I think all the elements fell neatly into place. The camera pan was smooth (on a monopod), background blur at 1/20 sec just right, the position of the bird's wings was interesting to me, the light was nice, the spacing good between the birds, etc. A sense of gracefulness is conveyed, I think.
For me it works, and if anyone is wondering, no other Photoshop "tricks" were invovled in the shot other than massaging the colors a bit, as it was fading light and the original scene was somewhat muted.
Anyway, thanks for indulging a bit of an explanation about the image. Oh, and this shot did not win any prizes, it merely was accepted into the exhibition. Interestingly, it was not accepted into a different juried exhhibition a few weeks ago, so as with any art form what gets juried into a show is all very subjective.
Be persistant!
Best wishes,
TomJ
