Fall Skein of Geese

[Stephen Stephen]

This is my first contribution to the Pano forum. I created this image this evening at the pond in Bruce Pit about 5 minutes from my home. Canada Geese and other waterfowl use it as a staging ground before and after feeding in local fields.

The pond is in a basin below the surrounding land so it falls into low light conditions more quickly than nearby. To add to the challenge heavy cloud cover blocked most of the light from the setting sun tonight so I as forced to use ISO 800. This is one of the few times that I've set the camera to ISO 800. I'm not that pleased with noise level in the full size image so it looks like I'll have to work at shooting in low light more.

Canon EOS 40D, Sigma 50-500 on Manfroto monopod. 1/160 seconds, F- 8, ISO - 800. Fill Flash. Image cropped to pano format from Landscape. Crop width is about 95% of full frame width. The necks of 2 geese and the right wing of each were in the right side that was cropped.

[Robert Amoruso]

I like it Stephen. A nice pattern to the geese and the background is pleasing OOF and offers up some nice colors.

The bird forum would bust you up over the geese intersections but I do not feel that is a problem in a tight group like this.

[Stephen Stephen]

Thanks Robert. This image was created just a couple of seconds after take off so the birds had not had enough time to begin spacing themselves out.

I really like how small flocks and family groups of Canada's begin calling to each other just before they take off. It sometimes gives you a bit of time to get ready to try and capture the action.