After fording the shallows of the west fork of the Rio Grande to one of the large sandbars in the middle of the river, I was faced with a forest of salt cedar interspersed with thorny Russian Olive Trees as I bushwhacked my way across the sandbar to see what was happening along the wider, deeper water running on the east side of the sandbar. Figuring they were hidden from the shutters and eyes of humans they commonly see along the accessible areas to the river, the Sandhill Cranes were playing games, drag racing to be more specific, very much like what you might see in an old Far Side comic.
As I emerged from the orange-yellow briar patch, a couple of Sandhill Cranes took off in a race down the river, while another pair quivered behind the barbed wire starting line ready to start their drag race down the river. I was able to catch the second pair on film and narrate the action in each of the photos below.
Off Center & Not Even 
gorgeous captures~
Thanks, Cindy!
Oh wow, im so envious. Gosh to capture them in flight like this. What were your settings if you dont mind me asking. Wonderful!
Thanks, Julia. The settings for all the cranes in flight, except the last photo, were 200mm at ƒ/6.3, 1/40 sec shutter speed at 100 ISO. All handheld. The shutter speed was 1/200 sec in the last photo.
These are wonderful images….particularly the movement and flight ones.
Thanks, Janet!
Sensational. Congratulations. Wonderful photos and lovely commentary ❤
Thanks, Gill!
What a fabulous set of images to wake up to this morning! I *know* what you went through to get those images, which makes me appreciate them even more. My very favorite one is of Light Speed kicking in the turbo 🙂 ))))))))))) They are are wonderful!
Thanks, Susan. Light Speed in turbo in my favorite, also.
The cane captures are sublime!
Thans!
Beautiful photos! Love the action shots of the cranes and the description of your photo journey. Cranes from the Far Side… 🙂
Thanks, Lavinia! I loved the Far Side and often think of some of those comics when I out photographing things.
I love the Far Side! Parts of my life feel like a Far Side cartoon. 🙂
My favorite Far Side is “When Worlds Collide”.
I have so many favorite Far Side comics. One all time favorite we quote is the “Wiggle grandpa’s rat…” with the snakes at the dinner table.
not only do we get fantastic pictures.. we get a marvelous story… you are so creative
I like how you captured the movement with blurs and all. I miss those Far Side comics – the only reason for a newspaper subscription. 🙂
Thanks, David. Far Sides was a gem, and I miss it, but I think Gary Larson was smart to end it when he felt like he was running out of ideas.
I haven’t seen more beautiful photographs than these , Bravo!!
Wow, I like how you were able to catch them in various stages of flight!
Thanks, Janna!
Beautiful images, so creative!
Thanks!
Great in flight motion blur captures! My favorite is the take off…
Thanks, Katrina! I like Lightspeed going into high gear.
Bravo, Tim! What an interesting and beautiful series of the cranes in flight, racing no less. It was well worth tromping through the salt cedar and Russian olives. Thanks so much for sharing with all of us.
Thanks, Juanita!