Snow Geese In Formation

[Jonathan Spool]

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I went out looking for short eared owls, but none were to be seen by me this day. However, there were numerous fly overs of snow geese occurring and
it seemed like a good opportunity to try out by BIF skills with my new Canon equipment. I just moved over from shooting Olympus for the last 15 year
and learning a new system posed its own challenges.
This was taken early morning and I was swinging the 600 freehand.
The image is cropped some, levels adjusted, noise reduced in NIK Dfine, and selectively sharpened in NIK as well.
1DX Mark ii EF600 ii f/4.0 1/1600sec ISO 200

[Tim Foltz]

Jon,
Nice shot, comp looks good, exposure is nice, next time try a larger f/stop it might bring out a few more details.
Other than that looks like you're getting the hang of the new gear.

-Tim

[Jonathan Spool]

I mistakenly called these snow geese. These are Trumpeter Swan, not snow geese.
Thanks for the advise Tim. Once I got home I realized there was no reason to shoot at f4 when I already have a smooth background. I think I’ll use f8 or f11 for shots with sky only backgrounds from now, and save f4 and larger for busier backgrounds.

[Bob Miller]

Jon...Nice shot! It can sometimes be hard to not get any mergers with these guys. There's nothing at all wrong with your crop but I found myself cropping off the bottom two swans and liking it as another variation.