Between The Lens

Pelicans vs. Snow Geese: Getting it right the first time

There are apparently a lot of bird watchers in the area. That fact was brought home to me quite clearly upon my arrival at work Monday morning.

At issue is a picture taken Saturday morning in Hannibal, Mo., of a pair of pelicans that was published in Sunday’s edition. The only problem was I identified them as snow geese, after I had correctly identified them as pelicans earlier in the day. At left is the photo that ran in Sunday’s paper.

How did the mistake happen?

An unfortunate series of events, that’s how.

I was covering the annual Easter egg hunt at Hannibal-LaGrange College. When the event ended and I was headed to my car, a huge flock of pelicans circled above. I was intrigued by both the patterns and the silhouettes they made when they flew near the sun, so I started taking pictures.

I shot the pictures with a 300 mm lens on a Canon EOS 1D Mark II N digital camera. For the technical-minded, I would have preferred a 600mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter to get a lot closer to the birds in flight. The ISO was 200.

Here’s one of the first pictures.

While shooting, I remarked to a man standing near me that the birds “looked like pelicans.” He replied, “They are. American White Pelicans.”

I shot about 140 frames in less than two minutes, even though I felt I didn’t have enough “lens” because the birds were still so high in the sky. Nonetheless, I really liked some of the patterns the birds made when they were almost above me, so I felt I had an OK picture for Sunday’s edition as a standalone.

I’m not an ornithologist, but when I took the photos, I was convinced they were pelicans. When I got back to the office that afternoon, I captioned the photo as such: “A pair of White Pelicans weave an aerial pattern while flying above the Mississippi River bluffs Saturday in Hannibal, Mo.” H-W Photo/Philip Carlson

At right is the original image I cropped the picture from. (You can see the pair on the left.)

All was good until about 8:30 that night when I got home. I hadn’t read the Saturday paper yet, and in doing so came across a story that ran on The Herald-Whig’s Outdoors page Saturday concerning the overabundance of snow geese and their spring migration north. With the story was a picture of snow geese, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the birds I had photographed that morning.

Here’s the Associated Press photo as it ran in the paper.

Well, I saw the black markings on the wings and immediately believed I had misidentified the birds I shot that morning. On top of that, I didn’t have a print with me at home of the birds I had turned into the paper earlier that day, so I was working strictly on memory.

But that’s no excuse.

I tried to recall how big the bills were on the birds I photographed, and I couldn’t tell from the snow geese picture in the paper how big their bills were. I called the editor at The Herald-Whig who was designing the page and told him I thought I had made a mistake. He remarked about the bill, but I said the black markings were too prominent, and I asked him to change the cutline from pelicans to snow geese.

The funniest part is what I said to him in closing: “I’ve got to get this right, or I’m going to get deluged with e-mails.”

Well, I got it wrong, and for that, I apologize.

Thanks to all who e-mailed me with the correct information. From now on when photographing birds, I will try to seek as much identifying information as possible before the picture makes it into print.

In searching images this morning on the Associated Press site, I found another picture similar to mine of a snow goose.

The black markings in this photo are clearly broader and patterened different than those on the birds I photographed Saturday. Had I seen that photo before I turned mine in, I would have known beyond a shadow of a doubt that the birds I photographed were not snow geese.

Anyway, here’s a few more pictures I took of the pelicans so you can see the overall scene I was working with, and of the crops I made.

Thanks again to all who contacted me. Hopefully this explains how the mistake was made.

Phil Carlson, H-W Photo Editor

April 13, 2009 | Categories: Feature Photos, General News, Photography Tips Corner, Pictorials, Uncategorized | Tags: Feature Photos, General News, Photography Tips Corner | 1 Comment »