Now that daylight savings time has kicked in, I actually have some "golden hour" on the drive home from work. I decided to "Take the Long Way Home" photographically speaking (with deep apologies to SuperTramp) and drove along the southern W. Platte River Road between Alda and Wood River. It is the time of our annual Sandhill Crane migration, and a lot of people from all over the world come to what is normally a "flyover State" to get their fill of the thousands and thousands of Sandhill Cranes that we take for granted. The rare (and endangered Whooping Crane is their Holy Grail). I saw my first one last year [photographed with a 200mm f2.5 and a defective (I didn't know then) 1.7x teleconverter] on my K-x. This year, I was armed with a Bigma on my K-5.
I stopped at the Platte River where an observation deck was full of tourists. A pelican flew right over our heads while I was there, but I was to slow and only got it from behind. With nothing to see there I proceeded south to W. Platte River Road and headed west, skimming along the south of the Platte River, with harvested fields full of Sandhill Cranes refueling for the trip to Alaska and Siberia where they would hatch their young before returning south in the fall. This was my 2nd day ever seeking a Whooper while armed with a camera. The first, last year, I drove right to one over a lunch hour. This time, I found one again: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/8575498343/in/photostream In addition, I got many of the pedestrian Sandhills Cranes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/8576594072/in/photostream and even some curious deer nearer to sunset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/8576593126/in/photostream These are quickies from Picasa. Posted within minutes of arriving home to see what I captured. Hope you enjoy. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
