There's always an element of luck with photography. That Gary (cminer52) was able to capture hundreds of sandhills in an overhead shot was partly good planning--he knew where to get the photo--but he still needed the cooperation of the cranes to make the shot. We were seeing similar numbers of birds at Big Marsh Lake, but only a few were directly overhead and my massed-grouping photos showed them coming in across the lake. Different perspectives, and different locations, but both photos show the main action.

Not that I lacked for overhead-shot opportunities, as this photo shows. But to duplicate Gary's shot I'd have needed to be standing somewhere else.