Geese Watch

It's a rare sunny day in late December, so I decided to drive down to the Skigit valley and photograph the snow geese. This is the time of the year that the snow geese will congregate in the valley.

Within an hour, I was there, driving along the country road searching for snow geese. It didn't take me long to spot them, hundreds of them, feeding in the field.

It's a beautiful sight...green fields, snow geese, with the mighty Mt Baker in the background. I couldn't ask for more. I was going to shoot (photograph, in fact) some close up using my 100-400mm lens, then wait for the sunset when the geese will take off, capturing them against the rosy sky. All planned out...

The first sight of trouble is...I dind't pack my 100-400mm, instead, it was a 70-200mm, way short. So my only option was to photograph them taking off and flying, against the rosy sky. Still not to bad. Just wait for the sunset...nature photograph is all about waiting for the right moment, right?

About 30 minutes later, the sun started setting and the air was getting very cold. No sigh of taking off, just quack, eat, more quacks. Now I realize that trouble was, well, the second trouble is, it took several elements working together to have a good picture. I got the perfect weather, picture perfect setting, tons of snow geese, but they were not flying! They seemed so content, just kick back and eat.

Quack, quack.