This is a crowned crane in flight in the Masai Mara Conservancy in Kenya. The midday light wasn't ideal, but in post-processing I lightened the shadows and darkened the highlights in an effort to reduce the harsh contrast from an overhead sun. I also darkened the background somewhat to direct more attention on the bird. My Land Rover was fairly close, so I switched to a 70-200mm zoom and was able to fill most of the frame with the outstretched wings. My settings were 1/2500, f/8, and 640 ISO. It's important to me to insure the wing tips are sharp; I don't like slightly blurred images. Slow flying large birds don't need a shutter speed as fast as smaller birds.
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