Autumnal snow...

[Daniel Cadieux]

After processing a bunch of blue sky and cloud Snow Goose flight images I stumbled on this one that I almost forgot, and it features a prettier BG IMO! Anyhow, here it is, complete with late evening light that helped enhance the orange hues of the trees:cool:. Ideally an even higher wing position would have been best, but I am OK with it. Immediately out of the frame at right is a big factory that is located across the pond - hard to believe this is taken in an urban area!

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1000s., f/6.3, ISO 400 (settings histogram checked), natural light, handheld, cropped for comp (~80% FF).

[Christopher Marek]

After processing a bunch of blue sky and cloud Snow Goose flight images I stumbled on this one that I almost forgot, and it features a prettier BG IMO! Anyhow, here it is, complete with late evening light that helped enhance the orange hues of the trees:cool:. Ideally an even higher wing position would have been best, but I am OK with it. Immediately out of the frame at right is a big factory that is located across the pond - hard to believe this is taken in an urban area!

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1000s., f/6.3, ISO 400 (settings histogram checked), natural light, handheld, cropped for comp (~80% FF).
The background is perfect because it is just enough in focus to tell us what it is, yet it does not compete at all with the foreground bird. Lots of 3-D effect here. This shot is a real rarity with me. Why? Because I always lose focus to the background with my autofocus. I wonder what I am doing wrong. I have tried keeping my finger on the autocus button of my lens to shut it off immediately after I aquire focus. :2eyes2:What a pain to deal with for me.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Love it. In fact I have a very strong preference these days for images depicting birds against a background other than sky - busy or not. Personally, I find the wing position you show here - namely we can see the underside of the near wing but get a glimpse of the top side of the far wing - more interesting than most "wing up" images. JR

[Allen Sparks]

Very nice. Love the background and wing position.

[Duane Noblick]

Love the light in this one and the couple of water droplets tells me this one had just taken off. Wing position doesn't bother me one bit either because the head doesn't intersect the far wing.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Lovely posture, droplets really ad to it. And yes, so much more striking than a blue sky background..:)

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Another vote for including something other than just sky as background. I have pretty much given up on those type of shots, unless the action is spectacular. Just so much more interesting to have an anchor/reference point in the image, esp. with some nice color as here.

The wing position here works because the wings remain against the trees, and aren't bisected by the horizon line.

Cheers

Randy

[Kiran Poonacha]

I loved the pop effect here DC, nice light and WP too...

[Stu Bowie]

Nice and sharp Dan, and good job on the whites. Having said that, the goose certainly stands out against the colourful BG, and agree, the trailing droplets adds interest. Well captured.

[Doug Brown]

Looks good Daniel. I agree that habitat really makes for much more compelling images.

[James Salywoda]

Beautiful Daniel great fall bg nice pose and sharp well done.

[Pieter de Waal]

Lovely image Daniel , Goose realy stands out against that beautiful background. All else has been noted and I would be happy with the wing position if it were mine.

[Craig Brelsford]

It's autumn and the geese are migrating--that's the message this fine shot clearly conveys. I'm surprised no one suggested adding a little canvas to the right.

[Paul Hokanson]

I like the angle of the bird and the light. Great BG.

Do you use a blind? I have a 7D and 400 5.6, so I'm just curious.

Thanks.

Paul

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks everyone!

Paul, no blind needed here. This was taken in Victoriaville (Quebec) where up to 200,000 Snow Geese stop over and congregate on a small lake during migration. Here is a photo of yours truly at this very location - notice the geese in the BG to give you an idea of proximity (image courtesy of Jacques Matteau).

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/DCadieuxVictoriaville.jpg