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!

Wicken Fen

Although the light wasn't special this morning, and the wind picked up as the morning progressed, I thoroughly enjoyed capturing a range of birds, some of which I hadn't taken photographs of before. I hadn't seen, or indeed photographed before, a cygnet riding on the back of a parent. What was intriguing was to watch the parent swan continuing to feed with its neck underwater much of the time.

Feeding Time at Welney

Last evening was the first time I had been to Welney for an 'after dark' swan feeding session. There weren't as many Whooper swans as I had seen on other occasions, and we didn't see any Bewick swans, although we were advised that we would be able to hear them when we left the hide.
We saw plenty of Pochard though and they bobbed around like corks, particularly when they were diving for grain which had been thrown out for them. There are plenty of challenges to get good photographs in these conditions! It was worth a try! With a dark background the majesty of the swans seemed to be emphasised and it was fun taking some portraits.
Couldn't resist capturing the night lit bridge and bike stand too!