Travel Tales from The Hub


Bosque Del Apache and The Festival Of Cranes

Ken Hubbard

By Ken Hubbard

Every year in November thousands of people descend upon Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Preserve and the small town of Socorro, New Mexico to watch the annual migration of birds. Originally founded as a preserve in 1939 it has since grown to cover more than 57,000 acres and 358 different species of birds have been spotted on its lands. Even though it has a large amount of birds and wildlife to gaze upon, this time of year 2 specific birds are the stars of this spectacular show. Snow Geese and Sand Hill Cranes make their way to the ponds, grasslands and farmland that make up this beautiful preserve and the bird spotters and photographers are up before dawn and stay well past sunset to capture a glimpse or images of this amazing migration.

© Ken Hubbard
Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset: Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD – 600mm, 1/1600 sec, f/8 @ISO 2000

The Festival of Cranes

During this migration The Friends of Bosque Del Apache put on the Festival of Cranes (http://www.friendsofthebosque.org/festival-of-the-cranes-1.aspx), a week long event consisting of 156 sessions of seminars, talks, walks, eco tours and field workshops. This year from November 14-19th the festival will be celebrating its 30th anniversary and there is something for everyone from the novice bird spotter to the advanced photographer. There will also be an expo tent which will host manufacturers from the photo, binocular and wildlife tour industries. Tamron USA, pro photographer David Akoubian and I will be there the entire week with lens loaners and advice to help the attendees capture amazing images. So, if you want to experience a beautiful location and see thousands of birds, this is the place to be.

© Ken Hubbard
Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset: Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD – 600mm, 1/1600 sec, f/8 @ISO 2000

Birds In Flight

As a photographer, one of the goals whenever you are trying to photograph birds, is to capture them in flight. I will admit, when I first started trying to do this, it was a bit frustrating, either I couldn’t find the birds in the sky or when I did they were blurry because of movement or just plain out of focus. With a little practice and learning the correct settings for my camera, soon frustration turned to joy when it all started to come together and I was able to capture the images I was looking for.

© Ken Hubbard
Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset: Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD – 260mm, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3 @ISO 800

First, I had to learn to look through the viewfinder with both eyes open. This may seem simple but will take a little getting used to. Normally when you put the cameras viewfinder to your eye you close one eye to help focus on the subject within that frame. When you do that while trying to capture birds, you limit your field of view and can easily lose site of the birds and end up just moving your camera and lens around in frustration trying to find them again. If you keep both eyes open while looking through the viewfinder, you expand what you can see and then find the birds that are flying around in the sky much easier. This will take some practice, so try it a few times before you go out into the field.

© Ken Hubbard
Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset: Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD – 600mm, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3 @ISO 1250

Next, are the camera settings needed to capture these images. It’s all about speed, shutter speed that is. If you are attempting to capture birds in flight you will need fast shutter speeds to freeze their movement, and the faster the movement, the faster the shutter speed needs to be. I usually start with a setting of no less than 1/1000th second but usually end up somewhere about 1/2000th to really capture the moment super sharp. Next, take the shutter release off single shot and set it to fire continually when depressing the button just once. There are usually 2 settings, continuous Low or High, set it to high so you get the fastest frames per second rate. Next is focusing, set your camera to a continuous focus mode. Depending on your camera system this is usually called either AF-C or AI Focus mode. This mode allows the camera and lens to keep focus on the subject as it moves left or right and forward and back within your frame. Once again practice before heading out, getting used to these settings before going out into the field will reduce any frustration that may occur and increase the amount of good images you will capture.

© Ken Hubbard
Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset: Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD – 600mm, 1/2000 sec, f/6.3 @ISO 1600

Try Something a Little Different

What do you do when you are up before the sun, and there is just not enough light to get the shutter speeds you need to capture birds in flight. You slow it down to capture images with a completely different look. One very early morning while waiting for the snow geese to come in and land on the ponds a few sand hill cranes came in gliding low just above the water. The light was very low and my shutter speeds were slow, so I panned my camera along with the flying cranes, firing the camera with a shutter speed of 1/15th. This created a pan blur effect on the background and movement blur in the birds wings, all the while keeping the head of most of the cranes sharp. The final image ended up looking a bit more like a water color painting than a photograph.

© Ken Hubbard
Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset: Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD – 600mm, 1/15 sec, f/13 @ISO 640

All Images captured with Tamron’s SP 150-600mm Di VC USD & SP 150-600mm Di VC USD G2