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| Demoiselle Crane Full Spread |
This year Israel saw a special guest - a Demoiselle Crane from Africa. Significantly smaller than the Common Cranes that visit Israel every winter, this Crane has a distinctive black-and white head, capped with a "wig" of white hair falling behind the head. A beautiful sight to behold. I was fortunate enough to be able to see the visitor from close by, and he made quite a show, enabling me to capture this photo of his impressive wings fully extended. Lucky me!
What do I like about this photo? The interesting and unusual subject. The pose, with the wings fully extended and every feather showing, along with a clear view of the head. The amount of details is awesome - you can zoom in as much as you like! The background is interesting, but also blurred out, since I used an open aperture (f/6.3 - the most open my lens supports at a focal length of 400mm) to get a shallow depth of field.
What would I want to improve? A lower point of view would have made for a more dramatic photo, with the background being more of the interesting green leaves and less of the boring brown soil. A more open aperture (which, unfortunately, my lens does not support) would have blurred out the background more, creating more separation and making the Crane stand out more. Furthermore, if he had turned his head a bit more to the left his red eye would have been visible, upgrading the photo as well.