De Sousa uses such imagination and precision in his work and the photo Swan Lake is a wonderful example of his quality. I altered this a bit to parody the award winning swan in Adagio by MAK .
I have no strobe or external flash so to get the contrast I had to use a flashlight (Mini Maglite) during an 20 second exposure. I first lighted the front which cast the shadows and then moved and added just a spot of light at the back of the swan to fill under the wings.
Thank you everyone for commenting on my photo. Some liked that I combined the two ribbon winners into a common photo and some didn't. I am pleased with the response and a personal best. Wooo hooo!
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This was a risky shot, and I think it was the reason you didn't score better. Two pictures in one, maybe, it was too much for some literal voters waiting for a single copy. IMO you did a great, great job with a very difficult photograph. Congrats!
Look at that - your personal best! I love the adagio touch. The lighting looks great and I like the hint of blue. MAK liked it, so how cool is that? Congrats on a great photo and a great score!
A fairly well done emulation of De Sousa's Swan Lake. The musical wake as the swan 'swims' past is what really makes the both compositions demand our attention and play with our imagination. Lighting and details are good in your composition. There are a few things that I think can be done to improve the composition such that it moves from the above average category to the excellent category. First is that I think that the flow of the disrupted music should be stretched out more on an angle to give a stronger appearance of a wake behind the swan. Here the wake is probably at a 70 degree angle whereas a 45 degree angle would be better. The other suggestion is that angling the swan at a 45 degree angle would be more visually appealing than one that is angled almost perpendicular to the viewer. I think showing the wings curled adds a different dimension to the composition (for I really do think of MAK's Adagio in the wings challenge) but in the long run the view from behind doesn't work as effectively for the shadows thrown behind on the wake really obsure the music. A swan with sharper folds and angled such that the majority of the shadows thrown is off to the side of the wake making the wake & it's music much more prominent.
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