photoartflightEarly Morning Snow Geese Take Off @ Blackwater NWR
I was cleaning out old BackUp Drives and found this image of an early am Snow Geese Take-Off at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland. This was taken 2 days after Christmas in 2007. It was early in the morning as I was setting up my camera & tripod, hoping for a mass Take-Off of the Snow Geese. I was using the 13 lb Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 lens @ 300mm on a Canon 1D mkII. It takes a while to get this large zoom lens setup on the tripod with a Wimberly Gimbel head. And luckily I got setup before they had a mass take-off.
photoartflight 
Great image lucky you checked and didn’t erase it.
Thanks! Sometimes you find interesting images when cleaning up files!
Awesome picture!!
Thanks Isabel! It was fun to watch them take off!
Just in time 😊. Wow!
Yes, it was a Great day to photograph Snow Geese in large numbers!
Got to experience the Snow Geese takeoff at Anahuac last week – quite exhilarating!
Yes! It is fun to see them in such large numbers! And if you are close enough the sound they make is amazing!
I can hear them now! 🙂 Great lift-off shot of the SG, Reed!
Thanks Donna! They are always fun to photograph in large numbers! One day at Blackwater there were huge numbers in the field by the entrance so I was in the field photographing them with a 24mm. They all of a sudden took off so I was in the middle of hundreds taking flight! The sound of their wings that close was amazing! Then I was wondering how they did not fly into each other!
I’ve been in the middle same experience too. The squawking and wing-beats is something to hear! You’re lucky you didn’t get hit with any bombs. I haven’t yet lol but I heard the bombs hitting the ground around me! 😲
What a sight in the early morning light!
Yes it is definitely fun to watch, hear and photograph!
Lugging around such a heavy lens takes dedication. I’m not happy that my bag with a camera body, three lenses, a flash, extra batteries, and a few other miscellaneous things now weighs 15 lbs.
I was somewhat younger when I had that lens! Plus you kind of set it up and worked that area for a while. I do not think I could handle that now! I am very content with a Tamron 150-600mm or a Canon 400mm DO with maybe a 1.4x teleconverter on a variety of Canon bodies. And then a m43 body with a wide to short telephoto lens. The older I get the less I want or could lug around! Thanks again!