….more like playing with my camera

Usually when I approach birds of any kind they tend to fly away. I was hoping that my new zoom lens would allow me to get closer without actually having to physically approach my subjects.

A few day ago, when I left the dog at home, I walked into the Col. Sam Smith Park hoping to find some birds to capture with my camera. Despite the bitter cold, I found a gaggle of geese along the first beach as I entered the naturalized area of the park. To my surprise the geese did not fly away. Instead a couple of them walked towards me as if looking for something. I don’t know if it was curiosity on their part or if they were looking for a handout.

At one point they got so close to me that I found myself actually backing away from them. One thing I know about geese and swans is that they can be rather nasty and they will bite if they feel threatened. Clearly these two weren’t threatened by me or this big black contraption hanging from my neck.

I’m pretty pleased with the photos I managed to get. In fact, I didn’t have the zoom lens with me. I used the macro lens. These birds were way to close to me for the zoom lens anyway, unless I wanted pictures of their eyes.  I’m sure that an expert could find plenty wrong with them. The day was overcast, Canada Geese don’t have a lot of colour and the beach we were standing on was also void of a lot of colour. Consequently there’s not a lot of contrast and everything seems a little muted. None the less, it is what it is and I finally got a close-up even without my zoom lens.