There's Always One in the Crowd

A few years ago, while looking for birds, I came across a flock of Snow Geese. This flock number in 10's of thousands and they were all feeding in a field close to the road.
As I tried to get closer a farmer in his tractor came by. I asked if I could walk along with the tractor until I came on the geese. He said sure and off we went, when we got close I just stopped walking and the tractor moved on. I was about 10 feet from thousands of birds, the sound was deafening.

I took this photo and processed it, can't even remember what I used. All the Snow Geese are white, except for a single Blue-phased Snow Goose.

I never posted this image but have had it in my files since 2009. Nancy asked to see a larger version, so here it is.

Ciao for now

When the geese realized I was in their midst, this happened. You didn't dare look up. :tinysmile_shy_t:

Thanks for posting. Great story about using the tractor as a portable blind. But I loved the punch line with the 2nd image! I like the very graphic look of the 1st image, and that the heads are still identifiable. Would consider removing the 2 very dark shapes in the upper bkgd as they pull the eye away from the geese in the foreground/middle ground. Now you need to turn image 2 into a graphic also.

Paul:

The overexposed whites which flow together in the 1st image tend to unify the mass of birds into one giant organism with lots of heads. Very interesting effect.

Cheers

Randy

Pleasingly different! And very clever about the tractor!

Must have been quite and experience. It just melds into a mass of birds with the whites, and I think I agree with Nancy about the two darker birds at the top. Hope you post some more:S3:

I like it! I like the composition centered around that one darker bird. I'm of two minds about the dark birds in the upper image--they do draw my attention, but, they also help my eye move around the image. You were clever to walk behind the tractor. The processing works nicely. This could be a Theme image.

Hi, Paul, this reminds me of Bosque. I love both views and I know what you mean about looking up:S3:

I like the colors and your processing. Given the title, it sounds like you want to draw attention to that blue-phased goose. Cropping it so that goose is on the intersection of divine proportion lines (which I did) or rule-of-third lines if you prefer that, would do two things. It would put the goose in a more prominent position with regard to composition, and it would make it proportionately larger in the image. You do lose a good number of the other geese, but I think people would know there are a lot more, anyway.