The Duck and Swan Show

[dbmk]

Rushed out after work, to get a little shooting done on this springs first really sunny day (even if it was windy as ...).
Down at the local pond I started shooting some ducks (or one in particular as it turned out):



And it apparently felt it needed to dry the hair a little bit:



Which can lead to a messy do :) :



But then I got charged by this one
(ok, charged and charged - it came pedalling at great speed, probably because it expected me to feed it. But these things are crazy monsters, so I took a few steps back :) ):



But since I wasn't feeding it, it decided to put on a show to earn it:





And since that didn't do the trick either, I got flipped (by) the bird:



I managed to get a little closer as it started digging around on its own, having given up on me as a food source:



(Could have gotten some fantastic closeups - if I hadn't botched the focus. :mad: )

[Celebration]

1. Love 'em

I have to say I love most duck, goose, etc. pics, but I really like the top one.

We had a day like this today too--warm and sunny, after awful weather last week. The park was absolutely packed, and then I remembered it is spring break for a lot of kids.

I was back at it on the bison, and then came home and tried to take backyard things. I think I like ducks and geese the best. They move around a lot more than the bison, but aren't as skittish as birds and squirrels.

I don't think your focus looks botched. If I were a swan and you didn't bring food, I would have flipped you off too!

[dbmk]

2. Yeah, I made a mental note (again) of bringing food next time.

Both so I won't have to see those sad faces again, and also because it should improve my chances of close ups. Win-win. :)

As far as the focus goes, I had some much closer than the ones here. And those were the ones where I messed it up.

Should have gone a little higher on the ISO, so I could have stopped down the aperture to give me a little more focus range. That might have saved them.

[NV Whino]

3. The lighting on the first one is beautiful

Good stuff!

[JeffR]

4. What a great set of photos.

The second one of the swan putting on a show will win a photo contest, assuming the right theme ever comes up. Or be a fine addition to the '10 calendar.

I don't think it would be possible to improve on that shot. Very fine work.

[dbmk]

7. Thank you

I might put it up for the calendar. Hadn't thought about it, as I had planned to do some macro of something smaller for that.

[Maestro]

5. Love the swan images

Swans are so beautiful.

[dbmk]

10. And crazy :)

[Fumesucker]

6. Very nice shots...

I have to agree, I too like the first one best..

If you are going to a higher ISO, keeping the histogram in the upper part of the range helps suppress noise..

[dbmk]

8. I always try to expose to the right

For those who don't know what that means, this article explains it a lot better than me:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

That site has a lot of good tutorials and articles about the basics and not so basics of photography.

[MissHoneychurch]

9. WOW

gorgeous shots. I love swans. They are majestic animals. And those pictures show that.

Make sure you enter them in the calendar contest once it starts.