February 2009 Photo of the Month

Snow Geese and Heron in the Skagit Valley, Washington © Jay Goodrich

Heather and I have been together for almost 12 years. We have always struggled to find a New Year’s celebration that has kept us talking about the experience for the months following. The parties that we remember often are the ones in which we were always with those closest to our hearts. I think 2000 was the last time that situation had occurred. This year we spent it in Washington with our very dear friends Art Wolfe, Cindy Reed, Patrick Rummans, and Tim Hagan the master coffee maker with the aspen leaf trademark. I can honestly say that I laughed for five or six days straight and I still laugh whenever I think of our time with everyone. I had that much fun.

The day after New Year’s, Art took us all to the Skagit Valley for a photo shoot. It was as if you stole all of the snow geese from Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, and dropped them into this amazing northwestern eco-system, added a bunch of glaciated peaks, the ocean, a river, and very very green grass. The color palette was something to die for, especially at sunset, which is when I took this image. All of these snow geese blasted off because of a lone blue heron who flew into the mix looking for dinner. He then proceeded to fly around with his brethren, unbeknownst to him, that he was the actual cause of all of the commotion in the first place. On the last frame of a 4GB flash card, I rendered this image of the “black sheep” appearing from his flock. This image was taken with a Canon 1D Mark III, 600mm f4 AF IS lens, Gitzo tripod, Kirk ballhead. Mastered in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Related posts:

1. Photo of the Month for December 2007
2. December 2008 Photo of the Month
3. July 2008 Photo of the Month
4. September 2007 Photo of the Month
5. November 2007 Photo of the Month

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am. It is filed under photo of the month and tagged with great blue heron, holiday, nature, photo of the month, photography, Skagit River Valley, snow geese, Washington State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.