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Ducks, Mallards I think, moving off towards the sunrise and mist, at Herons Green; 6 Apr 2015.
This picture would work in its true orientation but, to me, presenting it off the horizontal adds to it. It is starting to cross the line towards an assemblage of graphic elements, rather than being a depiction of reality. So that, instead of three ducks swimming away, it is now three rounded silhouettes positioned more or less on the periphery of the area stretching down from them to the lower right corner of the frame, which has its golden colouration thinly streaked with black. Whereas, up and to the left of these three silhouettes, this streaking very quickly fades away.
Its really not like me to ask such a thing, but are these three beings heading away from troubled waters … into a calmer place with more … Hope And Light … ? … or was it simply that they’d realised they’d ravaged and swallowed the last morsels of my last sandwich ….. ? ….
And in the same way, rather than using colour “straight out of the camera”, I have taken this image into black and white via Silver Efex Pro 2, and then restored its colour. As often happens, the colour restoration has not faithfully reproduced reality so, in this way too, the image is moving away from reality.
Somewhere recently I read of a photographer saying “I’m not interested in reproducing reality” – a sentiment that would of course make the hackles of our Photorealist Brothers and Sisters rise into overdrive. But to me, as always, there is room for all approaches, from pure fantasy right through to the starkest realism.
D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Cool Tones 1 preset and restoring colour.
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FATman Photos 
It’s really tempting to invoke an analogical reference to a Sisyphean task like “swimming uphill,” but I’ve tried really hard to resist that temptation. You can see what success I had. Deep waters, indeed.
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I envy you your success, from time to time. And I’ve heard ” Sisyphean” somewhere else recently – ah yes, Roger Hicks in Amateur Photographer magazine! I hope you’re keeping well, my friend. A 🙂
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Playing catchup…. There’s not as much catching up to do as usual.
Hope all is well with your world. 🙂
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Yes, things are ok, thanks – but you’re right, the blogosphere, or at least our little corner of it, does seem a little quiet at the moment – = an effect of good weather / the holiday season??? I hope all’s well with you, too. A 🙂
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Holidays and sunshine. 😀 Good to hear.
Things may be looking up here too, I’m on a new regime of pills and potions for an underactive thyroid, and looking closer at the symptoms list, I’m hoping for a miracle cure for everything else which ails me at the moment too. 🙂
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Well I wish you all the best, my friend, let’s hope for good things. A
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Ha, ha…not quite sure..we are getting in deep waters here! The photo has indeed quite disturbing and symbolic elements. I feel like saying: don’t flee..stand up for yourself..but that is a dangerous thing to do, especially for a duck!
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No, its the ducks who are getting into deep waters, but that’s ok as they’re floating on the top. But if they’d really taken my last sandwich I might have been tempted to go to the nearest pub and order duck for lunch!
A favourite memory is of feeding Mallards at Seaton, where they were so frantic for the bread that they climbed up onto the top of my Wellingtons to be that little bit nearer! A 🙂
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A picture of the ducks climbing onto your wellingtons. :-D. Definitely smile worthy. 😀
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Hand on heart, if I can find my heart under all this flab, it was a truly memorable and treasured experience 😀 !!!!!!!!!
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