not Snow Geese

[John Chardine]

Here is an attempt at capturing a flock of Snow Buntings on the Tantramar Marsh, near Sackville, NB. These birds are in their element on wind-swept, flat landscapes like this where they feed on plant seeds. Temp. was -12°C with a stiff breeze.

I cropped the image to obtain a clean top and bottom and had to chop a couple of birds on the sides, which I then cloned out. Also cleaned up a few strands of grass that were over one of the lower birds. I've tried to make this one a little extra bright on my monitor so it does not look dull on yours.

Let me know how I could improve.

Canon EOS 50D, 70-200 f4 IS, 1.4 tcII @ 280 mm
capture date: Friday, January 2, 2009 2:18:49 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/2500
aperture: f8.0
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Stephen Stephen]

John I really like this pano format. The exposure is good and the whole flock looks in focus. It's an image I've wanted to create for some time but the snow buntings here seem to be especially wary even when I'm using my SUV as a blind.

The challenge here IMHO is which birds to clone out (if any) on the far left and far right. The lowermost bird on the left has no head so I would be tempted to remove that one. I have less problem with the far right bird which is flying into the frame.

Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Dale]

The Snow Bunting is such a delightful photogenic bird. I wish we had flocks as large as this around here. Love the panoramic image format. Good job on the difficult exposure.

[Leroy Laverman]

I never know where to crop/clone flock pictures. I think you've done a good job here and the pano format fits the scene well. I'll bet it looks even better printed larger.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Looks cold there:D
I really like the crop,composition and the timing!!!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like these types of images. I like this one too...but one way to improve would be to have an image of the flock before they have passed you (most of the birds here give me the feeling they were passed you when sutter was pressed). If I had to choose one bird to clone out it would be the one in ULC that is nearly flying out of the frame :-)

[John Chardine]

Thanks Daniel and others for all the good comments. I was stalking this flock and was not physically prepared to sit out on the snow and wait for them to come to me. One future project is to try to figure out how to set up for these itinerant birds- maybe with some pre-baiting with millet.