It is a pretty rare situation when you can use a Lensbaby on wildlife. However, such was the case today with these Sandhill cranes. They are wild, yet completely comfortable around humans walking right by them. . Year after year they nest here, and the next generation seems to get bolder and more habituated. . When you have wildlife that is comfortable around humans, it can be worthwhile to try some tools you wouldn’t normally use to take advantage of the situation.
It was a family of three, preening not much more than 3-4 feet away as I sat on the ground . I used this chance to get some face portraits where you can really see some up close details of these great birds It didn’t occur to me until later on when they were foraging that I should try to get some lensbaby shots of them. The lensbaby can be hard enough to focus with, let alone following along on a snail mission with a bird Most were scrapped, but I liked this one. . It’s different for sure.
At one point I was sitting waiting for one of the birds to approach me – hoping to get somewhat of an ‘upward view’ with the lensbaby Well, the bird became a little too curious with the funny looking lens on the front of my camera and zeroed in on it I am not sure if she was upset I wasn’t doing my share in the snail hunt or that the little knobs protruding from the lensbaby looked a little bit too much like small snails I had to scold her with a “Back off snail breath”, letting her know it wouldn’t have tasted good anyway. . They eventually realized I was quite useless to them in finding something to eat and went on to other hunting grounds.
