# Aransas Whooping Cranes



## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

This was my second year to take a trip on the Skimmer out of Rockport to see the Whooping Cranes at Aransas NWR. It is worth the trip if you have a chance to do this before the birds go back to Canada in the spring. You can get more info at http://www.rockportadventures.com/rpa/. Here's a few from our trip this Wednesday.

Brett


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

*part 2*

Here's a few more...


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## EastBound (Oct 5, 2004)

Beautiful pictures. I really like the one flying.


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

Some wonderful shots there Brett. The 600 comes through again. I imagine a lens like that would be absolutely necessary on a trip like this?


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

Gator_Nutz said:


> Some wonderful shots there Brett. The 600 comes through again. I imagine a lens like that would be absolutely necessary on a trip like this?


It depends... Last year I shot mostly with my 70-200mm and sometimes used a 2x tc on it. That was in late December and there were a lot of birds near the water. This year, we only encountered one pair of birds near the water so the 600 came in handy. I'm not sure if all of the birds have made it down yet. I think you can get away with less lens later in the season. 300mm or bigger is a must.


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

So those are whooping cranes I see coming over my house.
I thought so but I wasn't sure. They make a weird noise every time in the winter months. I like to run out and see them flying. They are truly a cool bird. I can't wait to get my Nikon and return the flavor of photo shooting.


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## Koru (Sep 25, 2006)

i wish -JAW- could have seen these photos. who knows, maybe he can.  they're beautiful Brett. thank you so much for sharing them.

rosesm


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

Nice stuff Brett. I think the bird in #2 id a Dale Jr. fan. Anybody else see it?


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## Shooter (Jun 10, 2004)

8, good eye Rusty


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## chicapesca (Jun 7, 2004)

Gosh Brett, those are beautiful! There is a pair near Seadrift, but I haven't been able to get close enough to them yet.


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

what kind of settings did you use on the flying picture. I am trying to take better action shots.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

fishinguy said:


> what kind of settings did you use on the flying picture. I am trying to take better action shots.


I took the flying shot with the following settings:

Nikon D2x 
600mm f4 AF-S II w/TC-14E II (840mm) on a Wimberly head
ISO 200
1/350 second
f/8


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

this might be a dumb question but I am new to all this stuff. I have a cannon rebel and I have just started messing with this stuff. but how do you take a pic with all that motion on ISO 200 and not blur it up.

1/350 second what setting is this is this? the shutter speed.


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## fishphoto (Mar 3, 2005)

1/350 is the shutter speed. I took the shot in aperture priority mode, which means I choose the aperture (f/8 in this case) and the camera's meter determines the shutter speed for me.

As far as the blur goes, the bird was flying into the wind at a fairly slow speed. This allowed me to get a crisp shot at what might be considered too slow of a shutter speed for most in-flight shots.

My choices for the exposure settings were:
ISO 200 - this is as low as I could get that day, which would still allow the aperture/shutter speeds I desired. I try to shoot at 100 or 200 because I get better quality images with less noise (grain).

f8 - these birds are large and I wanted to make sure I had enough depth of field to get most of the bird in focus. The large telephotos like I was using have a really narrow depth of field at larger apertures (smaller f-stop numbers).


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

now I need to get out and play more. I have been spending too much time inside with the camera. Time to take the party outside.


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