What I suspect are day-old goslings with mom. Dad is not far behind, but it was tougher to get them all in focus with enough detail on the kids to be interesting. They were a hundred feet away or so. Normally Canada geese aren’t interesting enough to shoot, but babies, well. I had to try. These two shots are the best of the bunch and many ended up in the trash bin.
Interestingly these two had another pair of geese guarding them. They put themselves between me and the family and kept an eye on me. No doubt they would have charged if I decided to wade into the water. What a great adaptation. In evolutionary biology circles, altruism is a really interesting subject. Given what little I know about it, I’d guess the two guards are related to the family being guarded. The urge to protect one’s genetic lineage is very strong and siblings and other near relations count almost as much. Fascinates me.
Specific Feedback Requested
Thoughts about processing and shooting techniques welcome.
Technical Details
Both handheld in a crouch. I decided to ditch the monopod to see if images were different and they were. I’ll comment in my monopod thread.
Anyway… both shots got - Lr for raw work including a crop, some wb adjustment, lens correction and the usual luminosity management. I also took the blue channel down in the Calibration panel since it was pretty heavy due to the sky reflection. A bit of texture and clarity. Some sharpening and noise reduction, but it didn’t need much. Topaz Sharpen to bring up more detail using the mask feature so the water would stay unaffected. Photoshop for some distraction removal and a little vignette using the TK8 freehand tool.
I’m not sure the world needs more Canada Geese, but these two are fuzzy cute, and well photographed. And very interesting about the guards. They would definitely be relatives. Have you read “The Selfish Gene”? (Richard Dawkins.) Highly recommended!
Thanks to the Three D’s for your comments and input. Yeah, who needs more of these guys? They just poop on my lawn. Which, actually, I’d rather have than otter poop. But they were cute and they do what they do so it’s fine. I might go back here on Wednesday to get the boat in the water.
The little head shake was quite the surprise. I couldn’t see what the kids were doing that this distance.
And yes, I’ve read The Selfish Gene more than once along with a couple of other Dawkins’s books. The Blind Watchmaker is one I probably need to get to. Evolutionary biology fascinates me, especially altruism. Such an interesting trait to have developed among species and across species.
I like the first one over the second because of the angle of the adult with goslings crowded together. It has a more parental feel to it. Well done…Jim
Thanks @Jim_Zablotny - it is a rather sweet moment with those fragile youngsters. If conditions allow I’ll probably put the boat in this same lake and see who is around. There are tons of tiny islands and tuffets of vegetation I can hide behind.
