Welcome to the Dance

Behind the Camera

 Last March, I had the opportunity to visit Kearney, Nebraska. This wasn’t my first time in Kearney, but this trip was for a different purpose. Nearly forty years ago, I traveled to Kearney, as well as the neighboring towns of Grand Island and North Platte. Then I was still on active duty and the Army was looking for property to build Army Reserve facilities there. That was a much younger me.

Now, I was in Kearney to see one of nature’s great wonders – the Great Migration of Sandhill Cranes. Every year, nearly one million cranes leave their winter homes in southern Texas and Mexico. They fly two to five hundred miles a day toward their cooler summer nesting in Alaska, Canada, and some even go to Siberia. They have flown the same route for centuries.

In March, Sandhill Cranes stop along the Platte River in Nebraska. There they rest and eat to prepare for the remainder of their journey. The experts at the Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center in Wood River, Nebraska, told us that the cranes would add twenty percent to their body weight during their layover. The Crane Trust folks were wonderful, and I took advantage of an early visit to their observation blinds along the river. It was awesome!

As the sun rose over the river, thousands of cranes stirred from their night’s sleep. They began taking to the sky in groups of tens and hundreds. I was able to take some spectacular photos and video of these beautiful birds in flight.

After a couple of hours in the blinds, the morning sun fully lit up the sky and the last of the roosting birds flew out to nearby corn fields for a hearty breakfast. I also left and drove to some of the surrounding farms to get a different glimpse of these birds.

Our Crane Trust guide told us about a courting ritual of the Sandhill Cranes. It’s a dance between prospective pairs of cranes. Crane, like geese and eagles, mate for life. So, there they spend time getting to know one another. It seems that the male crane tries to show off to the females by jumping into the air. They will jump higher and higher to impress the object of their affection. If the female approves of the male’s efforts, she will spread her wings and bow, as if to say, “That’s nice, but you can do better.” The male will then continue to jump, and the female bows in approval.

I saw this dancing when the birds were in the river, but the couple in this photograph were the stars of the dance contest. While all the other birds were busy eating their fill, these two were dancing to their hearts content. It was beautiful and mesmerizing to watch. So, I call this photograph, “Welcome to the Dance.”

Geek Speak

While this appears to be a simple composition, it was challenging to take a sharp photo. Using my Sony a6700 camera and Sony 200-600mm lens. The birds were in this corn field. Using the full focal length of 600mm, I zoomed in on this pair of cranes. The shutter speed was 1/640 seconds. I’ve learned when I hand hold a zoom lens, I must compensate for my hands shaking by setting my shutter to about 1/100 second for every 100mm of zoom. Using a tripod allows me to slow the speed much more.

I wanted a good depth of field to keep everything a clear as possible, so my aperture was set to f/9. The early morning light required my ISO to be 320. I often use auto-ISO when photographing wildlife. My camera can make that adjustment much faster than me. So, using manual mode for shutter speed and aperture, I can freeze the motions and create the depth of field as broad or narrow as I wish for the composition.

That sounds fairly simple, so what was so challenging? Trying to get the proper focus was problematic. My camera has awesome autofocus with AI supported eye detect for whatever subject I am photographing. However, I usually use the zone focus setting on my camera’s sensor. So, my camera kept focusing on the ground, the corn, the other birds, and missing the subjects that I was trying to capture. So, I changed my focus setting to spot focus. That gave me a small box in the center of my view finder. Setting the subject of my interest in that box and my autofocus on bird detection, the focus snapped immediately onto the eye of the bird in my view finder. With the aperture at f/9, both birds were in focus and I could take this sharp image. Another lesson learned as I continue to be schooled by the beauties of nature.

This photo is available for purchase from the store page of this website. Check it out with many other wildlife and nature photographs. Also, be sure to check out the full video on this adventure and subscribe to my YouTube channel. It’s free, and it allows me to share more exciting adventures. Here’s a link - https://youtu.be/cIMBU2heMAs?si=aJ0in6KnGPWB6JUo