Sleepy Swan

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This fellow was trying to go to sleep. He kept still for the photo, but I had to make "cluck" noises with my tongue to make him open his eyes. Sensia II. Elan IIe, 70-200/2.8L. F3.5, probably.

-- Roger Wong (rogerw@bigfoot.com), September 27, 1998

Answers

I like the lighting in this photo. It's not your typical swan in a lake shot. You may hear comments about the missing catch light in the eye, or the black background, but in my opinion those things are not as important as they normally would be in this shot. It has a very quiet, calming mood which I like.

-- Glenn Swan (swan@ampex.com), September 28, 1998.

Personally, I think Glen is just partial to swans;)

One way to break up the black background is to put the subject higher in the frame, to catch more of the reflection in the foreground.

The hotspot just after the neck is a bit distracting from the quiet nature of the image.

-- Joe Boyd (boydjw@traveller.com), September 30, 1998.


Yes, it's a lovely picture of a swan in great lighting. The neck appears significanly darker than the body and (to me) appears "dirty" this way. Still very nice!

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), October 03, 1998.

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