Photograph of a Swan

This nature photograph was captured on the Exeter Canal about 12 months ago. Its a very traditional photo of a Swan standing its territory during the breeding season.

The camera used was a Nikon D40. Even this entry level camera has captured great fine detail in the swans plumage. The image was adjusted slightly to increase the contrast, showing more feather detail.

Nature photography is very challenging and it’s an aspect of digital photography I would like to explore more. I do need some larger lens as well as other equipment to help me out, but in time I will achive this gaol!

I have seen some great macro photography out there of pupating insects. I will hunt it down and share it with you.

If you are an armature nature photographer, please send in some images to share.

Swan on Helston boating lake

Swan on Boating lake

Helston boating lake can be found on the Porthleven road out of Helston. Ducks, Swans and Gulls enjoy the area, with children feeding them and playing in the park area . There is also a very popular skate park located here.

The Swans have been breeding on the lake for many years, often rearing 4- 5 cygnets a season. They do become very aggressive during the breeding season – attacking other water fowl. However, they are as we all know very graceful.

As the swans are used to being fed, they are happy to pose for a quick photograph. This head shot of a Swan was captured with the help of my children feeding them some corn. The Swan seemed to rise to the occasion and allow me to get this portrait photograph.

Following on from my macro adventure which I wrote about here images of insects I was inspired to photograph some grasses due to there textures and fine detail.

Meadow grass

Grass photographs

Having taken some time to study the form of different hedgerow grasses I was amazed how delicate and fine they are, full of texture and shape

The problem with capturing this image is the slightest breeze moved the subject and I wanted to use natural light, not studio lighting. I found that wrapping a coat around the stems allowed me to steady the grass enough to get a sharp image and have some control of the scene.

Using a Nikon 18 – 55mm lens on my D40 I was able to use a small aperture to focus only on one part of the seed heads, throwing the background out. I decided to take the images in jpeg fine rather than RAW to speed up processing time.

Post capture

I had taken 20 photographs and had 10 usable ones. A great session!

Grass

Very little adjustments needed to be made, which I was delighted with. I did play a brush over the seed heads to dodge and burn shadows and high lights, but used only 2% exposure on the brushes.