Iconic Mates Print

This image of a pair of “mate-for-life” Canada geese was a lucky snapshot using a point-and-shoot camera.  Not only was the timing lucky (what a great pose!) but the camera (Canon G9) still delivered a great cropped result despite being inadvertently set to shoot lower resolution pictures than it was capable of.

Okay but...

...if you don’t like geese and the mess they make, then looking at the business end of their modus operandi may be a bit...uh... disconcerting, particularly in sepia tones. 

On the other hand, if some part of you values faithfulness and dependability and the way these characteristics contribute to life, then you will take great joy in the symbolism of the picture. 

Certainly the fact that both heads are oriented in the same direction gives the sense of two minds working as one.  But a more subtle symbolic element is in the shapes, specifically oval, egg shapes.  This was taken in the early spring after all.  The not-so-subtle vignette is one egg but the bodies of the geese, both individually and as a pair, evoke the form as well.  And life goes on.

Finally, if the above doesn’t do it for you, consider the picture from the nostalgia perspective, either as part of a 1920s travel poster for Canada or as a frame from some early, scratched up film footage.  In fact cutting to the next scene would show the obligatory Mountie in red or perhaps a couple canoeing on Lake Louise in Alberta. 

Iconic.

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