Photo of the Month April 2013

Photo of the Month April 2013
Photo of the Month April 2013

Back to basics

Last month was a very busy month for me, with the start of the first field work season for my PhD, and the conference in Weimar, which resulted in only one trip to the outdoors with my camera. In the last weekend of March, I went to the Hatertse vennen with some fellow members of Natuurfoto Rivierenland, a nature photography group based in Randwijk. Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn’t to good (but it wasn’t bad either), so we were anxious to see what the weather gods would bring. It was rather cold for the time of year, which resulted in frozen water and no mist. Not the ideal circumstances I needed for the picture I had in mind. Optimistic I went searching for other possibilities to photograph and ended up photographing these geese. Canada geese are not native to Europe, and therefore I have always refused to photograph them. In this situation, however, I was ‘forced’ to work with them, and they appeared to be willing models for my picture.

Lately, I find myself going ‘back to basics’, focussing once again on the animals in their environment, and trying to tell a story, in stead of focussing on creative photography, which is depicted in this picture. The Canada geese swimming in the bogs they inhabit. The ultimate picture for me would of course be a creative picture, telling a story of an animal in it’s environment, but that one still has to be taken. So my good intention for next month will be going out with my camera more often, which won’t be too much of a problem, as I will be going on a holiday to Abruzzo NP in Italy in about a week!

Canon 5D mIII, Canon 70-200, 1/6 @ f/8, iso 100, tripod, cable release