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Loving goslings
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Loving goslings



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Two baby Canada Geese making a pretty heart shape. #cute

Two baby Canada Geese making a pretty heart shape. #cute
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cameraCanon PowerShot SX60 HS

settings Aperture f/6.3 ISO 500 Shutter 1/1000 Focal Length 196510/1000 

upload_dateMay, 2015

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3 Comments |
julie_cavell
 
julie_cavell June 13, 2016
Beautiful image
toniallen PRO
toniallen September 22, 2016
Thanks julie_cavell very kind of you
beeoxierrod
 
beeoxierrod February 22, 2017
SIMPLY AMAZING CAPTURE!!! PURE AWESOMENESS!
toniallen PRO
toniallen August 24, 2017
Hi beeoxierod, I've only just seen your comment. Thank you! :-)
andreaeptonward PRO
 
andreaeptonward February 13, 2019
Amazing image

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Tags

#goose #gosling #baby #young #bird #wildlife #cute #walking #canada #fluffy #wildfowl #nature #conservation #pond
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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo in a very pretty little village in Surrey, UK, called Hascombe. I love photographing water and reflections, and on this particular day the village pond had a family of Canada Geese gracing the waters. The grass surrounding the pond had just been mown, and luckily for me the parent geese brought their goslings out of the water to munch the fresh cut grass.

Time

Waterfowl will feed at most any time of day, but they especially enjoy filling up before bedtime. On this particular day it was around 5:30pm, so plenty of time before dusk, but that freshly mown lawn attracted them onto the bank as an easy feed for their young.

Lighting

The weather in the UK in early May is always temperamental, and this was a day of shifting cloud. One minute bright sunshine, the next overcast and grey. This particular shot was captured when the clouds covered the sun, but that was no bad thing as birds don't like looking into bright sunlight, and often they'll turn their faces away from the camera, because in general I'll be shooting with the light coming from behind me.

Equipment

It's an absolute gem, my Canon SX60 HS. It's lightweight, multi-functional, and easy to hold steady at short range. The image stabilisation is superb so I managed to capture this shot hand held.

Inspiration

When these little goslings presented themselves, about a dozen in all, I challenged myself to capture a cute shot. Goslings look all fluffy and sweet, but they don't always photograph as pretty, often getting into strange poses, mostly with food sticking out of their mouths. When they all settled down at the edge of the water, in one long row, I was fascinated by how two of them related to each other, and chose them as my subject.

Editing

With the SX60 I always shoot in raw and jpeg. I turned the raw file into a tiff and processed in Photoshop. I didn't need to crop the image, and only made simple adjustments. Firstly levels, then curves, a touch of upping the exposure, because I always stop down to ensure better high tones, then a final touch of brightness and contrast. Lastly I saved as a Photoshop file, then saved as a jpeg.

In my camera bag

This is my walk-anywhere, lightweight kit. Canon SX60 HS, plus two extra batteries. I always change the battery when it drops a notch, this ensures correct exposure. A lens cleaning cloth and a cable release. Two extra SD cards, both high speed 32g, essential if I choose to shoot video. Sometimes I take my Velbon mini tripod QHD-53D, it's lightweight and brilliant.

Feedback

Opportunity and patience. With any birds you have to practise your stealth skills. With a mother and young you have to show that you're non-aggressive, so don't make any sudden movements. I was on the pond bank with them for at least 30 minutes before the geese felt comfortable in my presence and started to chill out. Ultimately I pitched camp and sat on the ground, cross-legged, one knee used to help steady my elbow as I took my shots. I was maybe 6 feet away from them at this point, offering me a focal length of around 200 ml. The sun went in, but I kept on taking shots, showing that I was harmless, in the vain hope that the cloud might shift again and give me bright sunshine. If I'd stood up to wait for the light to change they would have scattered and I'd have missed my moment. I had my camera set to aperture prioty and auto iso. This meant that my equipment would take some of the technical strain away from coping with the shifting light, and I could keep my eye on composition rather than twiddling with buttons and fussing over exposure. It paid off, I got my cute shot.

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