A million snow geese have been at rest for 30 minutes in the
water at Squaw Creek. Suddenly a lone
eagle flies overhead. A million geese
explode into the air as if their life depends on it. The explosion takes some time because only
the geese at the edge have enough room to take off. As they leave, the edge moves inward until
every goose is able to fly.
This is the moment that I've been waiting for. I fire a 24 shot burst with my Canon 1D Mark
IV. One of the shots will show the water
and sky completely filled with geese.
Every shot will be slightly different.
I don't need 24 shots - I'll keep the best one and throw away the
others.
And the night got
deathly quiet
And his face lost all expression
He said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
And his face lost all expression
He said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
I employed the Spray and Pray strategy for a reason. I'm using an 800mm lens extended to
1120mm. It has a maximum aperture of
f8. I have the magnification necessary
to show detail in each goose. Unfortunately, I don't have the depth of field
necessary to properly focus on each goose.
I don't have enough light to completely stop the beating wings. The additional shots increase my odds for
success.
You never count your
money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done
There isn't much time in the field for
"chimping". I do check the histogram
and a few shots from time to time, but mostly I rely on my experience and
attempt to totally concentrate on what is happening at the moment. I normally download my images as soon as I
return home regardless of how tired I am.
I've worked hard all day and want to see what I got as I back it up.
Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
I don't need to keep all 24 shots of a snow goose
explosion. Before I enter any of the
images into Lightroom, I review them
twice. On the first pass, I remove
images with obvious problems - overall focus, exposure, framing etc. and put
them in a folder titled CULLS. This decision is quick and easy. If I started with 1000 images, I might find 200 to cull. The second pass is more difficult. I look for and flag the best shot/shots in
each sequence. If there are a lot of
shots in the sequence, I look for the best in each group of 4. I place the rejected images in a folder
titled SECONDS. If I had 800 images
after culling, I may end up placing 600 of them in SECONDS.
I photographed geese at Squaw Creek on March 11th. I wasn't satisfied with my results. Instead of finding 6 or even 1 best shots in
my 24 exposure bursts, I had 24 shots with exactly the same problem. They had 99.9 percent of the geese in
acceptable focus and .1% of the geese out of focus. The geese that were out of focus in front of
the others were big white blobs in the photos.
'Cause every hand's a
winner
And every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep"
And every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep"
One of the reasons I decided to return to Squaw Creek the
following day was to solve this problem.
I went to sleep thinking about a solution. I could use a shorter focal length to get
more depth of field. I could focus on
the .1% of the front geese and let the back 99.9 become blurred. I could stop shooting explosions when other
geese we in front.
You've got to know
when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
I returned on March 12th.
The geese were closer to shore. I
used a shorter telephoto for some of the shots.
I waited for shots without geese in front.
Trying to focus on the geese in front wasn't as easy as it
sounds. The spot focus on my camera
wasn't able to distinguish those geese. I had some success looking for geese that
were going to pass in front of the explosion, focusing on them before they were
in front and panning with them as they crossed the other geese.
And the night got
deathly quiet
And his face lost all expression
He said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
And his face lost all expression
He said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
