There's Always One in the Crowd

[Paul Lagasi]

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

[Paul Lagasi]

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

[Nancy Bell]

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.

[Randy Stout]

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

[Diane Miller]

Pleasingly different! And very clever about the tractor!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

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

[Anita Bower]

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.

[Cheryl Slechta]

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

[Dennis Bishop]

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.