This image was taken with a Leica M 240 with a Voigtlander 35mm f1.2 lens at f1.4, ISO 200, and 1/350th of a sec (This is a cropped image). I saw this guy (I presume male) hanging around near where I live. He didn't seem scared of humans, and just hung around when another person was standing near him. And these geese are all over the area in the Bay Area. I managed to get several pictures of him, but this seems to be the best shot. This image was taken as he was hopping up the hill. Obviously not the ideal camera for this shot, any recommendation on wildlife photography in general? I recently got a Panasonic G9 and the Panasonic 100-400mm lens. It's got quite the reach.
I'm wanting to get into wildlife photography, I just took this with my rangefinder camera today.
I look at what some of the best wildlife photographers are doing and borrow from them. Patience and luck are needed in abundance. LOL
hey, David!
I really like this image!
You did a couple of things ver right here. First, you did not center your subject - it is so nice to see the Goose off to the right side of the frame, walking into the scene, rather than seeing it in the middle of the image, which would look awkward because he/she is on the move, and needs "space" to move into.
The other thing you did really well is to shoot from a low enough position that the upper part of the Goose is against the water and sky in the distance. Can you imagine how this would look if you had had the camera a foot or so higher, and the Goose's head would be against the ground instead of the distant sky? That would not be nearly as beautiful or dramatic.
Another thing you did perfectly was to get the horizon line level. With an image like this, that is SO important!
A couple things you may want to do in post processing:
- brighten the image up a little bit ... a third or a half of a stop should do it
- clean up the Goose's bill by removing the blades of grass that are clinging to it
- the white streak in the sky that is brighter than any other parts of the sky ... perhaps you can clone that out and see if the image is more effective with it gone, so that no one part of the sky stands out so much and draws attention away from the subject