Scott Bourne's stunning crane image

Scott Bourne, host of the podcast This Week in Photography, recently made an image that he wanted to make for 12 years!

He titled this absolutely STUNNING image "Cranes in the Fire Mist". 

Photo from twipphoto.com

Taken at Bosque del Apache, this captivating wildlife shot is now one of my top 10 favourite wildlife images. When I first saw this on his flickr stream, it was so beautiful that I let out a "wow" and stared at my screen frozen for a few minutes.

As Scott has written, this is a very emotional image for him, and (I think) probably one of his best works. He details the entire story behind this shot at the TWiP blog, and you definitely should check it out. He writes about how lucky he was to have all the elements of the shot come together... the light, fog, golden sunlight, weather, birds... and how he waited patiently for 12 freakin years to get these conditions!!! But in the end, it's all worth the wait.

This is a very inspiring shot to me, one that leaves me amazed, awe-struck and at a loss for words. But more than the aesthetic beauty, this shot has reminded me of the importance of pre-visualisation and patience in photography.