Fighting Swans

[Seamus]

I was at the harbour today and the swans were very agitated. I watched them nipping at each other and then one of the swans charged the flock and chased two of them across the harbour

http://seamus.smugmug.com/photos/31663388-L.jpg


They weren't flying across the water, they used their wings to get their bodies out of the sea and then ran across the top of the water.

http://seamus.smugmug.com/photos/31662819-L.jpg

The lighting was hard (excuse at the ready:rofl ) as the birds moved from shady areas into bright sunlight. It made some of the shots look very different.

http://seamus.smugmug.com/photos/31662939-L.jpg

and

http://seamus.smugmug.com/photos/31661710-L.jpg


Things settled down before I left and I took these

http://seamus.smugmug.com/photos/31662100-L.jpg

and

http://seamus.smugmug.com/photos/31662818-L.jpg

I used the shadow/highlights tool in elements to recover blown highlights in some of the shots.

Shay.

[bfjr]

I really like the Swan walking on water one :thumb
all are nice and interesting

[Seamus]

I really like the Swan walking on water one :thumb
all are nice and interesting
thanks Ben, swans aren't very exotic but I'm trying to get them in some sort of interesting action. The group that took off across the harbour were really moving. I think there may be a lot of little swans in a month or so, this may explain the agression today :scratch .

[Harryb]

Nice caaptures Shay but that second swan shot is outstanding :thumb

[Seamus]

Nice caaptures Shay but that second swan shot is outstanding :thumb
Thanks Harry, normally they are so boring, floating on the water, it made a change to see them doing something. White birds on a sunny day are a pain to photograph...... I was changing exposure settings every time I swiveled the camera and still blew highlights :scratch .

[bochie]

Wow, nice series :thumb

Can you post the technical data on the 4th shot ?
How did you get the background dark like that ?

[Seamus]

Wow, nice series :thumb

Can you post the technical data on the 4th shot ?
How did you get the background dark like that ?
I didn't do anything special. The exposure was set to -1 to try and stop the white feathers being overexposed. When I started to add contrast in elements the background went dark.

Shay.