Capturing a moment: Sometimes you get lucky!

A Pair of Sandhill Cranes Captured in the Yin-Yang of Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR

For many years my photography has primarily concentrated on capturing the  composition, light and form of the grand and intimate  landscape. However for the last couple  years, I have started to take up the challenge of  bird and wildlife photography because I feel that as a photographer I needed to grow and challenge myself in new ways.  Making artful images of wildlife is not easy and I have gained a great respect for those photographers who specialize in wildlife. One location I have traveled to for the last few years every December or January is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Here there is an amazing concentration of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese and it provides great opportunities to practice the art  of birds in flight photography.  Believe me it is addicting, and at least with modern auto-focus technology and high shutter speeds, the photographer has some chance to capture a sharp image. The real challenge is to make artful compositions of subjects that are in constant motion. The bottom line is that many many Birds in Flight images wind up in the trash, but occasionally you get lucky and capture a moment in time of grace and beauty. The image of a pair of Sandhill Cranes in flight I post above is an example of  all things working together: light, form, and a perfect juxtapostion  of elements captured at precisely the right moment in time. Sometimes you get lucky!  I am very honored that this  image has been awarded  an Editors Choice Honorable Mention in this years Audubon Magazine Birds in Focus Photography Contest.

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