Sand Hill Cranes - Bad Leg or Mating Dance?

[Suzan J]

Hello All: I was on my way to town today and spotted these two in a farmer's field next door. Luckily, I did bring my camera as I have learned from past mistakes to always have it with me. Admittedly, they could have picked a better background. Also, when they did take off, I had the focus point somewhere off on a cloud and not on their bodies. Damn, I could kick myself. I am finding that with my new D7100, I have no buffer room when shooting in continuous burst and on Large Raw + Jpeg. I had no "click" left to take any other flight photos. I wonder if I should shoot RAW only if that will increase the burst??

The one bird was constantly kicking out his leg behind him. He did this with each step and actually kicked out far enough so that his leg was parallel to the ground. I don't know if this was an injury or if he was showing off some fancy dance moves for his friend. It did not seem to hinder him from performing a running take off and flight. Any thoughts?

DSC_1572 by Soo J, on Flickr

DSC_1583 by Soo J, on Flickr

DSC_1584 by Soo J, on Flickr

DSC_1586 by Soo J, on Flickr

[deetheturk]

Nice series Suzan

[Shadowman]

Nice series. I only shoot in RAW and can get quick recovery after a 7 shot burst. If you have NR reduction or D-Lighting set on the camera it can also slow you down a bit.

[Suzan J]

Thanks John for the tip about D-lighting. I do have it engaged and will try turning it off to see what happens. I have been reluctant to shoot "RAW only" as I have found that I often get much better colour in Jpegs when shooting flowers. It seems that no matter how much I manipulate the RAW file, I can't get good colour with intense subjects like violet or red flowers. I will try only RAW, however, for a while with birds and critters to see if I get better burst results.

[Shadowman]

Thanks John for the tip about D-lighting. I do have it engaged and will try turning it off to see what happens. I have been reluctant to shoot "RAW only" as I have found that I often get much better colour in Jpegs when shooting flowers. It seems that no matter how much I manipulate the RAW file, I can't get good colour with intense subjects like violet or red flowers. I will try only RAW, however, for a while with birds and critters to see if I get better burst results.

Susan,

You should be able to regain any colors captured after RAW conversion. Experiment with your white balance settings for warmer or cooler tones (cloudy will warm).

[Brownbear]

Hi Susan,

Just to say that I especially love the 2nd and the 3rd image. Gorgeous detail and colour. I think you've made wonderful use of the background and blurred it away beautifully.


I shoot raw and never use D-lighting or noise reduction, and seem to manage enough shots, most of the time. It has been a bit of a challenge to learn to process the raw images but it's getting easier.

[NorthernFocus]

Based on your description and the photo I'd say the bird was just strutting its stuff by walking like that. Sandies can really do some odd looking stuff in spring. They will also fly around calling with a really weird, stiff/jerky wing beat.

Buffer capacity on the D7100 is the biggest knock against it being a really great wildlife camera. Six shots is it when shooting RAW. Faster cards help the buffer clear faster but you only get six at full frame rate then about a frame a second if you're still holding the shutter down. That's just life. And the hate side of my love/hate relationship with that camera.

[Marie Hass]

Suzan, this is a lovely series. I especially love the last image of the cranes in flight.

Dan, you mentioned the speed of the card and you are very right. I have 32Gb Pro CF cards and they are much faster than my old 8Gb CF cards.

Marie

[bnnrcn]

Hi Suzan, very nice series, I especially like the last one