Saturday, July 11, 2009

If Dinosaurs became Birds, Geese must have evolved from the Velociraptor.

Yesterday Crystal and I decided to visit the lake. Maybe I could get a few new photographs. I grab the left over stale French bread, cut it into small squares so I would have something to feed the ducks, and off we went.

I found myself a nice shady spot on the Shore, set up my tripod, legs collapsed to make a mini tripod that I could operate while sitting. I started to fling the bread into the water to attract the local wild life.With in a few minutes I hear the noisy racket of 4 very large geese as they crossed the lake towards the very spot were I sat. Then I hear a man whistling off in the distance behind me, and I realized that the geese were making their way towards him.
My first thought was “Great, there goes my shots, until this guy runs out of food”. To my surprise, the man, after noticing my attempt to photograph, walked up to me and handed me a whole head of lettuce. Lettuce?, I thought to myself. Ducks and geese eat plain old lettuce? I quickly found out that not only do they eat lettuce, they go crazy for it. I thanked Rick for giving me the lettuce, and offered to email him a copy of any of the photos, if any were good, but sadly, he did not have email. He wished me luck as he walked back towards the parking area. When I turned around from waving him off, I came face to face with four hungry monsters, as they circled around me, eying me face to face.

I began tearing off pieces of the lettuce and distributing them, and they just became more anxious. I felt a poke on my back from one goose, while I was busy handing out food to another. One of them kept poking his beak on my knee. All of a sudden, It dawned on me that I was, in no way, in control here. These birds are fearless when it comes to lettuce.

Every now and then I would place the head of lettuce on my lap to adjust the camera, and the two birds flanking my right and left side would attempt to make a move, un-phased by my waving hands. They would have their lettuce………….and they knew it.

For the next half hour I fed the monsters, and tried to photograph them, Then, all of a sudden, as if a whistle blew, they all started walking past me, up the bank, towards Crystal, who was sitting quietly on the nearby park bench. They start to stare her down, making loud noises, and within a few minutes, made their way to a patch of grass, as the sun began setting. One lone black goose remained, and accepted the last of the lettuce.

Since the sun was setting, I made my way to another area of the lake, to photograph the sun setting behind the hill, across the lake. With my tripod, and the addition of my polarizing filter, I began to snap away. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen in a while. The water could have been made of gold.

Like most photographers, it’s incredibly difficult to walk away from a beautiful site. It was now 8:05pm, 5 minutes after park closing time, and Crystal was getting anxious, as she didn’t want them to lock the gates, with my car still there. At 8:30, we drove off for the exit, my car approached a locked gate. Needless to say, I found a way to get my car out of that parking lot. In the end, it was more then worth it.

-Eric
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5 comments:

  1. your photos are really great , love the close ups of the fowl, I love taking pictures ! thanks for the follow on Twitter. My blog post is http://www.mountaindreamers.blogspot.com

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  2. These are such great close-ups of the geese. Perfect, because that's exactly what they look like when they surround you begging for food. And you're right, you were definitely NOT the one in control! Personally, I'm a little afraid of these crazy birds and I could feel my anxiety just looking at these photos - they're THAT good. And that's what you want, as a photographer, right? You want your pictures to cause an emotional response. Well done. Great pictures, great story.

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  3. ooh geese scare me I wouldnt have gotten this close!

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  4. I love your shot of the first close up duck with the blue eye... or is that a goose ? I think its a duck. I noticed one of them has a beak that, at the top near his head its sort of squareish and the other one's beak is more round there... whats the difference mean ? Is one a female and one a male ?
    I like your story and your style of writing.. both are very interesing and keep me reading. All your photos are gorgous and makes me want to learn photography even more.

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