Essence of Flight

Posted by Russ Devan (New Hanover, United States) on 12 March 2009 in Abstract & Conceptual and Portfolio.

...a flock of snow geese lift into the air at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I was fortunate to visit Middle Creek this past weekend with some great friends from the Chester County Camera Club. We spent several hours photographing the thousands of snow geese and tundra swans there until there wasn't any more light to photograph.

I wanted to capture, in a single image, my impression of the thousands of wings flying and moving in unison away from me. It's amazing how quickly the flock can go from standing still to becoming airborne with absolutely no notice. Somehow they all knew that they wanted to go somewhere together at the exact same time. So, who decides when and who decides where? Is there a leader? Do they form a committee and decide? Or, are the birds psychic and can they sense from one and other and from the clues in nature exactly when it's time to go? This is one of many mysteries in the natural world I hope science doesn't ever figure out. Because, many times, it's better to just sit back and wonder and appreciate than to actually know. This was one of those times.

"The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both."
- Zen Buddhist Text

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