Snow Geese Blast-off

[Wendy Kates]

Thousands of snow geese are currently migrating through central New York. I made this image on the western shore of Cayuga Lake in the late afternoon. All the geese were stationary on the ice in the middle of the lake, when all of a sudden the entire flock lifted up and began flying...it was my first time witnessing this and it was truly amazing. I increased vibrance and clarity in CS4, and sharpened slightly. All comments and critiques are welcome.
Canon 7D
70-200 f/4 lens, at 200mm
f / 10, 1/800s, ISO 400

[Wendy Kates]

Hmmm, I don't think I saved the image correctly...it is very small. I'm going to try again.

[Wendy Kates]

Looks like this worked....

[John Chardine]

Hi Wendy- really fabulous! The image gives a real impression of numbers.

In the repost I cropped a little water off to give the appearance of more birds and rotated the image a little. As a print for the wall, I would probably remove the "partial" birds along the top- if they are mostly there I leave them, if they are mostly not there I "spot" them out.

Well done!

By the way, these Greater Snow Geese stage in Quebec and I really want to go up and see them there.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Wonderful shot Wendy! Loved it in OOTB and this version too. I like John's repost as well. It brings focus a bit more inward toward the birds.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Wendy,

Good comments above and John's crop is better in my opinion, keeps the bottom edge clean (always try and clean up partial subjects when possible) and the bottom/foreground is so distracting,..but really good as posted.

Love these shots, and snow geese are truly amazing especially when flying in waves - just a great day in nature!

[Wendy Kates]

John, Jeannean and Jeff...thanks for your helpful suggestions. I hope you get to see these in Quebec, John, they really are amazing.

Wendy

[PhilCook]

Fill the sky with life ! amazing spectacle and Johns re post has improved just a little