It was late February when I first saw a post on Facebook about the Sandhill Crane migration that takes place in Monte Vista, Colorado. I didn’t know much about them, but I knew that I wanted to find them and photograph them. With two weeks to prepare, I asked my dear friend, Bronwyn, to road trip with me to these cranes. Being my ride or die, she excitedly agreed.
We arrived late in the afternoon on March 11th. We were staying in Alamosa, which is about 30 minutes from Monte Vista, where the cranes are. We drove into the sunset, through the countryside of the valley, and when we reached our destination, you could clearly see
Hundreds and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes…
Along with hundreds and hundreds of photographers. BLEH! If there is one thing that I aim to do with my photography, it is to get the most unique shot to me, something no one else sees, something no one else can replicate, which is really difficult to do when there are 100 photographers conglomerating in one area.
So, I just drove right on past that, because honestly, fuck that. I would rather get zero pictures of the cranes, than get the same picture as everyone else. We went and explored the refuge in Monte Vista for awhile, finding some water fowl and pretty wetlands, but sadly no cranes.
We could hear them overhead, with their trill of a sound, and we could see them migrating and soaring through the sky to where the flock was. What a treat. We exited the refuge and began exploring on some country roads. The sun was approaching its setting time, and we were about to lose all of the light we had left of the day.
So, I am zooming along, windows down, despite it being like 30 degrees outside, but damn the air felt so good, and then I both saw and heard them in a field to our left with a perfect pull over spot. The cranes were all on the ground, and simultaneously, as the sun was gleaming from behind them, they all shot up into the air and gave us a show I will never forget.
I really enjoy this particular shot, where the sun is very clearly shining its light through their wings giving them that orange glow, which contrasts beautifully with the blue mountain backdrop.
The following day, we got up early, and headed to Monte Vista for sunrise. We knew we were possibly going to struggle finding the cranes in the dark, and honestly we didn’t know where to look for them exactly. We decided to start at the refuge and then we would go from there.
As we were driving through the wetlands, the sun started lighting up the sky with a pink hue, although it had not broken the horizon just yet. We reached a partially frozen lake that was filled with geese.
HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK
Still, we sat there watching the geese, because we weren’t going to beat the sunrise to find something else. The sky got more pink by the minute and the environment got lighter and lighter.
As we were investigating the geese, we said to each other, “I think the cranes are behind the geese!” They were difficult to see through the fog, but the light made it easier to determine that behind the geese, in fact, were hundreds of cranes sitting in the lake.
Holy shit we found them!
The morning progressed, and the cranes began flying and soaring through the air and overhead once again. Their sounds were incredible to listen to.
OK, now I was cold, and I couldn’t feel my fingers. Other photographers were beginning to gather around me, which we already established I AM NOT ABOUT THAT LIFE! But FUCK this sun would not rise faster.
So we waited. Patiently. Anxiously.
The sun then finally broke the horizon. I was zoomed in on this particular crane, and as the sun illuminated them with it’s orange/pink glow, the crane stood up, and I shit you not, looked right into my camera and waved their wing in the air.
“Did that bird just wave to you,” Bronwyn asked.
For all of your realists, I know that actually didn’t happen, but for all of you dreamers, it was SO RAD! The crane then looked forward, soaking in the rays of the sun, and left me with this gorgeous image.
We spent the remainder of the day, exploring Alamosa and Monte Vista. Made our way to the Great Sand Dunes to possibly scope out a spot for a nice Milky Way shot in the morning. We located a 4x4 road only, to which I say, fuck yes let’s go. The roads were sloshy as the snow was beginning to melt but even though they were a bit slippery, we powered on until we reached a small parking lot.
There was a trail that led to a frozen lake, which led to the base of the dunes. We sand surfed down the first trail, and I thought to myself, “this is absolutely going to be a bitch coming back up.” We reached the lake, found out, that too, was quite slushy. Locating the shallowest part of the slush, we trekked through the icy waters to reach the base of the dunes.
To be up front and honest, I am NOT a hiker. I feel like I am dying frequently when I hike because I can’t breathe. But I also realize that I am not going to get the shots that I want by sitting on my ass. They take work, they take planning, and they take dedication. And it’s my job to do a good job.
So, I huffed and puffed up the dunes, following cute little rabbit prints all the way up, but other than that, our feet made the first prints in the snow. This is it. This is where we were going to photograph the Milky Way.
Fast Forward twelve hours…
I woke Brownyn up at 1:15am, which in retrospect is hella early but we couldn’t figure out the difference in times with Daylight Savings Time. So up we got.
We drove an hour to the dunes, 15 minutes on the 4x4 road, to find that the moon was still very up in the sky, and the Milky Way was not showing yet. So, we blasted the heat for 10 minutes, I ran to the trunk quickly, because it was 14 degrees out, grabbed my sleeping bag, turned the car off, and snuggled under the blanket for 2 hours.
I woke up and watched the moon slip behind the dunes, finally hiding enough of its light to see the Milky Way on the other side of the sky. It was time. We bundled up, grabbed our flashlights, and we started on our way.
Surprisingly the ground was almost completely frozen, as was the lake we needed to cross, and so traveling there was a bit easier at 4:00am. We followed our tracks back up the dunes, located our spot, and I sat up my camera. I handed Bronwyn the flashlights, as she was my painter of light. With out boring you too much about the specifics of my camera, I set up a 20 second exposure and was able to capture something that looked like the moon in space! Check it out below!
