BIRDS 116 – MUTE SWAN 5 (MONO)
November 2, 2019 6 Comments
Immature Mute Swans, moving slowly away while keeping me cautiously in view, on Cripps River. I’d come upon a family of these birds on the river bank and, keeping quiet and still, started taking pictures. I looked at them, they looked at me and then, unhurriedly and gently, they made their way down to the water’s edge, and slowly moved off upstream.
This is a jpeg generated and cropped in-camera from a raw file, using the Graphite profile, with no further processing in Lightroom. Because my blog has a white background, I’d wondered about adding a thin black border in Silver Efex Pro 2, but then decided to leave these birds floating within a wider whiteness.
Other recent bird pictures are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 .
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to further enlarge it – recommended.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in APS-C mode to give 450mm; 3200 ISO; in-camera processing of the raw file, including use of the Graphite profile and cropping; no further processing; Cripps River, at Eastern Moor Bridge, on the Somerset Levels east of East Huntspill; 25 Oct 2019.
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I like that graphite profile. And without the border the mind imagines them in a larger context. Great work!
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Glad you like my approach here, Lynn – thank you! The graphite profile is not a fix or cure all, but it certainly can give some good effects.
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Just fab. I love how they are there isolated from their surroundings – suspended in space. Definitely works well enlarged. I can see it working as a large poster in a minimalist home.
By the way, yesterday in my comment on your starling pylon post I said starlings had only appeared here once this year, well, they’re back!!
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M, I’m very glad you like this – another experiment! I had a quiet and relaxed time with these birds; I have some more shots in the same manner. Glad to hear about the starlings – I’m not, after all, you see, without my influence 😉 !!!!!!!!!! So, get yourself hidden and still somewhere (preferably in the garden …), put some food out, and click away!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Beautiful high-key effect. I agree with your not putting a thin border on this.
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Thanks, Michael – interesting about the border, isn’t it? Was I simply under the influence of mindless convention, or a desire to compartmentalise or just be neat and tidy????? I did try it, but felt it detracted from the whole somehow. A 🙂
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