Swans in the main

The first two images were taken at Welney at dusk and just afterwards.   They were taken with a compact camera - Sony RX100 Mk1 - and presented something of a challenge for the contrasting light, but also very limited light.   I'm enjoying the results though and am impressed with what this little camera can achieve!   I have it with me much of the time and am not ashamed to use the different modes and programme settings.   Very handy!

The second pair of images were taken at Milton Country Park this morning when I tried some more HDR 'in camera' and am interested in the effect the HDR funtion has had on the reeds.   They were also taken with the Sony RX100.

The final duo was also taken this morning.   It was interesting to see a family of Mute Swans still together - 2 adults and 4 cygnets.   While walking the dogs I thought I would just capture this family of Mutes.   I then recalled a speaker at the Cambridge Camera Club last season who talked about and showed some impressive images of wildlife which he, Paul Beastall, had taken at water level of waterfowl.   I thought I would try it!   So I lay flat on the ground, yes it was wet and muddy, and started composing the picture with swans reasonably close.   However, there was another image for the taking (which thankfully didn't actually happen for obvious reasons) which could have been of me flat on the ground photographing the swans, with one of our dogs standing on my back!   Where were you?!

This is the HDR image of the reeds, and it has that much more detail in all aspects of the photograph.


















 How much more dramatic the image becomes once one is photographing a swan from almost water level!