Robert F. Bukaty, an Associated Press staff photographer for more than 30 years, described the steps and setbacks behind an AP image of migrating snow geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in rural Pennsylvania. He said his assignment was to illustrate the huge number of snow geese that use the refuge as a stopover during their migration.
Bukaty said that each spring, as many as 100,000 snow geese overnight on open water of a still-partially frozen manmade reservoir as they travel north from the Chesapeake Bay toward their breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra. He also said colleagues who had visited the refuge the previous week told him when and where to expect the birds, including advice to arrive well before dawn because the parking lot fills up early.
He said those details shaped his plan for the shoot: park early, walk the half-mile trail to Willow Point, and be ready as the flock becomes increasingly noisy before taking flight en masse around sunrise. He added that he typically tries to research a subject before shooting, considers what gear to bring, and prepares for the weather, while trying not to form preconceived ideas for specific pictures.
Bukaty said, however, that he did form such an idea for this story. He said he arrived expecting “almost this exact picture” but found the birds were at least 100 yards from shore, making the scene hard to capture even with a 400mm lens equipped with a 2x extender. He said he tried again the next morning and again found the birds too far away, even though the takeoff still produced what he called an impressive spectacle.
He said the change came after he remembered reading that the geese do not always immediately rush to their frozen tundra destination. Instead, Bukaty said, they often spend the day feeding in nearby corn fields, and that detail helped him adjust his timing. Late in the afternoon, he said, he drove onto a dirt road and found birders standing outside their cars while several thousand geese fed out on the muddy farm field.
Bukaty said that in that later-day setup, the closest birds were about 40 yards from shore, positioning him to capture the kind of close, dense perspective he wanted. He said he used a 400mm lens with a 2x extender, set his camera shutter at 1/125th of a second, and aimed for a balance between freezing action while panning and conveying the “frantic energy” of flapping wings.
In explaining why the photo works, Bukaty said he believes the telephoto lens’s compressed perspective shows the density of the huge flock. He also said at least one bird in peak action is visible enough for viewers to focus on, giving the image a clear focal point amid the scale of the migration.