I’ve had a love affair and obsession with snow geese, along with their close cousins Ross’s geese, for 25 years. Watching a large flock of these birds take flight, filling the sky from horizon to horizon while deafening your ears with their calls, is an unforgettable, transcendent experience.
I’ve photographed these birds in every way imaginable over the years. You can see more images of them in my album of bird photographs on Google+, including some deliberate blurs, and a flash-blur. Last Wednesday and Thursday Claudia and I drove down to the San Joaquin Valley once again to photograph birds. This time I focused on capturing ethereal images of geese in the fog, and tried looking straight into the late-afternoon sun. I’ve included some notes on the accompanying photos a little further down.
On Wednesday Claudia and I returned to the San Joaquin Valley with our friend Kirk. We had another great day, capped by watching more than 10,000 Ross’ geese land in a pond right in front of us, silhouetted against the dusk sky. Claudia and I came back the next morning and watched them all fly out, the white birds reflected in the still water.
Video is a great medium for showing the incredible sights and sounds of these birds, and Claudia did an amazing job of capturing these events with our little Flip Mino video camera. At the end of each video you’ll also see some stills that I made.
Ross’ geese landing, Merced National Wildlife Refuge
As most of you probably know, last week I posted this image of Ross’ geese from Merced National Wildlife Refuge, and held a little contest to see who could guess the number of geese—in the air—in the photograph. The response was great; 83 people submitted estimates. The guesses covered a wide range, from 300 to 4000. Thanks to all of you who joined in—this has been a lot of fun!
So here’s the actual number of geese, in the air, that I counted: (drumroll please) 1585. The closest guess was 1600, made by Jack Kirchert. Congratulations Jack! Honorable mentions go to Jim Davies, 1560; James Williams, 1545; and Pam, 1543. All these people came within 42 of the actual number. The next closest estimate was 1505, 80 geese away from my count.
Since four people came so close, I’m going to award four prizes: all the people I just mentioned will get their choice of either my Digital Landscape Photography book or one of my three Yosemite posters. In addition, the Grand Prize winner, Jack Kirchert, will receive an 8×10 matted print of this photograph with a congratulatory message and my signature.
Most of the guesses turned out to be too low. The actual count surprised me as well. When I first looked at the image, I thought there might be 600 to 800 birds in the air. But when I started actually counting them (I know, too much time on my hands…) it quickly became apparent that there were a lot more geese than I thought. As I mentioned earlier, this was part of a large flock that arrived to join the birds already on the ground. This photograph shows only a portion of this group of new arrivals, certainly less than half, so this new group might have had 4000 to 5000 birds, joining perhaps another 5000 or more on the ground. An amazing number, and a wonderful sight. (Here’s a larger view of this photograph.)
So thanks again to all who participated, and congratulations to the winners!
Ross’ geese landing, Merced National Wildlife Refuge
Claudia and I had such a great time visiting Merced National Wildlife Refuge last Monday we went back two more times last week. On Wednesday we found a large flock of geese—mostly Ross’ geese—feeding in a field near the tour road. Small groups flew in, joining the group, then a huge flock arrived from the north. This photograph shows only part of this new group landing.
When watching flocks of snow or Ross’ geese like this, it’s always hard to estimate the numbers. You know you’re looking at a lot of birds, but how many? So out of curiosity I counted the number of geese in the air in this photograph. Yes, really, I counted them. I took the image into Photoshop, zoomed in, and marked little dots on each bird to make sure I didn’t miss any or count them twice.
So I thought it might be fun to see if you, my readers, could guess how many birds are in the air in this photograph. And just to add a little incentive, the person who’s estimate comes closest to my count will win a free copy of my book Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. Or, if you already have a copy, you can choose one of my three posters (you can view them here).
To make your guess and enter the contest, go to my blog home, where you can read the rules, see a larger image, and post your guess in the comments.
Speed Up Your Lightroom Workflow
I’ve been using Lightroom since Adobe released the beta version in 2006. Over the years I’ve learned many shortcuts, and in this video I share some of my favorite tips – things I use all the time to streamline my workflow:
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