Snow Geese Mass TakeOff

The Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge usually has a large amount of Snow Geese in March so it is fun to photograph the large groups of them especially in flight. On this visit I was on the Wildlife Drive looking at some small birds down by the water. A large group of Snow Geese took flight a little ways from where I was on the Wildlife Drive and were flying towards me. This image was taken as they were flying by me and then reversed direction and went back from where they took off.

Extreme Brigantine Snow Geese Panorama

On our trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge I had a lot of opportunities to shoot a lot of Handheld Panoramas. One of my Panoramas was the most extreme panorama I have ever tried do. For the Featured Image I had to make it fit the 1200 pixel width which I exceeded x 4 times to try to hold some of the detail in the Featured Panorama. So I also cropped the full image down to 7 sections to show the detail below. Too bad it was a rather Gray day when I was photographing this group of Snow Geese because it brightened up a little later in the day. The Featured Full Panorama Image was 56 images for an image 525 inches long x ~30+ inches high @300 ppi. The Layered file was huge and the final Flattened file was 4 Gigs. I was shooting with a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 483mm , f/16. Below are 7 cropped images to show the Detail in the above Featured image.

Cloudscape & Snow Geese High Flight Panorama

On a trip a few years ago to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife I noticed this flock of Snow Geese flying high above me. I took a couple of images but because the Geese were so high above me it did not look that interesting. Then I decided to shoot a quick 2 image series for a panorama to show a wider view of the flock of Snow Geese flying in the interesting clouds above. I was using an Olympus OMD 1 with a 14-140mm lens @ 14mm. The panorama was assembled in Photoshop, letting Photoshop align & blend the Panorama.

Blackwater NWR Snow Geese 28 Image Panorama

These images are from a trip to the Blackwater NWR in February 2017. The original panorama image is made from 28 images, shot handheld from left to right. The final image @300 ppi is 248″long x 10.3″ high. I was using a Canon 1DmkIV with a 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Canon Teleconverter. The featured image is reduced so much to fit the featured image format that I broke them down below into 6 individual images so you can still see some of the the detail in the full 248″ image. Posting size in this blog really reduces the sharpness in the images but hopefully they hold up somewhat.

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Blackwater NWR Snow Geese In-Flight Panoramas

On our visit to Blackwater NWR we saw quite a few large groups of Tundra Swans & Canada Geese, but I was looking for large groups of Snow Geese. There was one large group way out in the Blackwater River, but none close to photograph. Also saw one large group in the distance behind the Visitor Center but could not get a clear image of them from the Wildlife Drive. After driving one loop of the Wildlife Drive we stopped by the Visitor Center to photograph a large group of Canada Geese in the fields by the Center. Then off to the left of the Visitor Center I noticed a large group of Snow Geese flying in. It was still early so I liked the color of the sky behind them. When photographing multi-image panoramas of flying birds I tend to photograph them from the far end of the direction they are flying and shoot my series as quickly as I can. So if the group is flying to the right, I start my series on the far left and shoot quickly going along with them to the right to capture the whole group. If you go the opposite way you get more uneven spacing and more spacing between the birds in the group. Which is harder to touch up for the final image. The featured image is 5 images shot with a Tamron 150-600mm @600mm on a Canon R. These are about 80 – 122 inches for the original file, so making them so small in length for the post I loose some detail in the image.

Snow Geese Panorama, 19 Image Panorama, Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm, Canon R
Snow Geese Panorama, 15 Image Panorama, Tamron 150-600mm @ 309mm, Canon R (final image 122 inches)
Snow Geese Panorama, 8 Image Panorama, Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm, Canon R

Early 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.

Snow Geese Fly By

This large group of Snow Geese was flying in a long & low to the water flock of birds. The white Snow Geese overlapping the bright sun lit water really blended in with the bright water, but I thought it was still an interesting image. Image from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago. Shot with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.

 

 

Snow Geese Panoramas From Brigantine

Here are a series of panorama images of Snow Geese from a previous visit to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, New Jersey. There were so many Snow Geese in the flocks throughout the refuge the only way to get more detail in the actual birds was to photograph them in a series of panoramas with a telephoto lens. If I just used a wide angle lens the individual birds would be extremely small in the frame and I would have a huge amount of empty sky and foreground. All panoramas were shot with a series of handheld images with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter. Images were then assembled in Photoshop.

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11 image panorama, 400mm lens, with 1.4x teleconverter, final image – 99 inches wide @300ppi

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16 image panorama, 136 inches x 17 inches @ 300ppi, 400mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter

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6 image panorama, 400mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter

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Detail section of one panorama 

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Snow Geese Detail, 400mm w/ 1.4x Teleconverter 

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3 image Flying Panorama, 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter

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23 image panorama, 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter (136 inches x 12.75 inches @300 ppi)

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16 image panorama, 400mm lens w/ 1.4x teleconverter (138 x 17 inches @300 ppi)

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20 image panorama, 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter (137 inches @ 300 ppi)

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Snow Geese Flying Panorama, (4 image) 400mm w/ 1.4x teleconverter

 

Snow Goose In Summer

On our trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, we saw this lone Snow Goose multiple times around one area of the refuge. Usually they are all gone from the Refuge at this time of the year. But seeing it multiple times around a certain area it seemed like the one wing might be injured. We also saw it just walking along the side of the Wildlife Drive.Snow_Goose_In_Summer_v2_600mm_6_19_76A7282

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Snow Geese Panoramas from Brigantine

Sometimes when I find a large groups of birds I try a few panoramas, just for fun. On this day I found a very large group of Snow Geese, mostly sleeping, so I thought I would give it a try.  There was not much else around, so why not. They were not moving and stretched a long ways along the Wildlife Drive. The featured image (which will probably not show much detail in this blog) was 35 images, handheld, for a finished panorama of 550 inches long by 15.5 inches high. It took Photoshop quite a while for it to process the panorama and then I had a few touch-ups here and there because of the length. I was trying a new Canon R with a 400mm f/4 D.O. lens and 1.4X teleconverter. It was not very bright out so I should have raised my ISO and stopped down more for increased depth of field, but I thought it might be enough when I photographing them. So the foreground is a little soft, but it was still fun to try.

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Cropped section to show more detail

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Another Closer Cropped section

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Image taken later when they started to move around. Single Image showing limited depth of field on foreground because I was focusing on the flying birds landing in background.

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Starting to wake up and move around

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