Goose Season

We’ve had geese at our Portsmouth office since I started working at Liberty 16 years ago. They swim in our ponds, eat our grass, and poop on our walkways. They are a fixture of our campus and the local area. While they’re generally pretty mean, there’s a special time each year when they lay eggs and expand their little families. The geese don’t get any nicer, but, for a few weeks at least, they have adorable little babies following them around, making some of the hissing worth it. This is where I bring out my camera for an opportunity to grab shots of baby water foul during my lunch break.

The first time I photographed goose babies was way back in my Canon 7D days (circa 2011). I had recently purchased a refurbished Canon 70 – 200mm L lens (non-stabilized). I remember its striking off-white color and solid metal body. Next to my 24 – 105 mm, it was my second L glass and second constant aperture lens ever. The crop of my 7D made for a 320mm equivalent, that allowed some distance from the birds. I shot photos on several days and ended up with some that I was so proud of back then. Looking at them now, I can find many areas for improvement, but isn’t that the measure of progress?

Fast forward 13 years and I’ve been in and out of our Portsmouth office several different times. Now I’m back for my first baby goose season in a very long time and I’m a much better photographer. Not only do I have better lenses with better reach and a camera with better autofocus and a faster frame rate, but my skill is better too. I’m better at framing, better at choosing light, and better at focusing on the right parts of the birds. There were four goose families this year with a total of about 15 babies, which provided plenty of subjects on which to test my updated skills.

I took these images with my Z8 at 20 fps RAW with a mixture of bird eye autofocus and single point autofocus. I used two lenses: my trusty Sigma 150 – 600mm f/5 – 6.3 and my brand new Nikon 180 – 600 f/5.6 – 6.3. I shot these over a few lunch breaks so the lighting isn’t perfect in the mid-day sun, but there were some moments of shade that helped out. 

My favorite experience was actually on my first day of shooting: I had about 5 minutes left and started heading back to the building when I noticed one goose family swimming toward the shore that I’d walk past. I stopped at the edge of the path to catch them exiting onto the shore as a family, expecting them to walk away from me. I’d tried capturing them earlier in the hour but they were particularly skittish and aggressive so I left them alone and planned to do the same this time. To my surprise, the babies started walking toward me, along with their parents. Every now and then the parents would stop, look at me trying to stay as still as possible, and keep coming. The babies came within a few feet of me, so close that I couldn’t focus on them! I captured some great images that are far better than the what I took 13 years ago. 

Babies don’t stay babies for long, and within a few weeks they had turned into teenagers – a little more awkward but still interesting. One nest hatched late and added more babies toward the end. During my excursions I also got some shots of a duckling and its very protective parents, a turtle, and a tiny bird flying mid-air. Overall it’s been a great goose season. I have a ton of images to go through still, so you’ll probably see more as time goes on.