“Birds of a feather flock together,” or so it seems.

These are not snowy owls, nor were they intended to be. They are, as is abundantly clear, in-flight Canada geese. If you have a sizable stretch of open lawn, you will recognize their profile.However, in this moment of caught-in-flight, there is no sign of the slime noodles we all seek to avoid. I suspect, at one time or another, we zigzagged our way through the Canadian digestive extracts.

Now, I know this is not one of nature's great flying wedges commonly seen around our villages along the coast and inland. And I also know that this image will not reward me with the National Science Foundation seal of high honor. But, I do not seek nor would I accept this nomination! The scene, nonetheless, fascinates me, which is, after all, why I photograph.

What interested me, and this was without any deliberate intent secretly hidden in a deeper more philosophical meaning, is all the various positions exhibited by this gaggle traversing the coast. I did not set out to photograph geese in flight. There were other distractions of interest.

The flyers reminded me of an image made long ago, before photography became part of my life. Some may recall the rather famous sequentially photographed series of a race horse blasting along some track somewhere? It is time lapse views of a horse in various stages of stride. I loved that image and have always been fascinated by it, especially since it was made at a time when many photographic techniques were really just evolving long ago.

Well, the “positions” of these geese in flight was sort of like, to me, the sequential horse frames. Only difference, obviously, is that the geese group was not just one subject. But, since the geese are basically the same design, my image captures them all in various stages of their flight — some with wings up, some down, some giving the appearance of gliding (which of course they were not). These babies are working hard to plow their big bodies through the air and on to their intended next lawn.

It was a fun accident to fall upon while seeking nothing special.