What a saga! The first thing that came to mind for Peace was Alexsaberi's incredible swan photos. There's one reservoir on the outskirts of town that often has a wild swan or two swimming around, so I went there with high hopes. When I arrived, I found these two swans in a pretty good spot... and a very intimidating, shady looking dude glaring at me from the edge of the water (bear in mind I'm 6'4"). Hmm... and I left my cell phone at home... sound familiar? I decided to drive around a little while, but he was still there and the sun was rather strong so I bagged it until golden hour. When I went back (it's a 20 minute drive each way), the swans had moved out of sight behind some trees and there are no trespassing signs everywhere around the reservoir. Grrr... I decided to try again at the crack of dawn.
OK, so I go out there at 7am in 16 degree weather and the swans are on the far side of the reservoir... sound asleep. Perfect... two nondescript white blobs in the distance, and the forecast calls for rain later in the day. I surrender. Time to find a new idea.
The next morning, I wake up to FOG! Yeehaw! I dash off to the reservoir and find the swans actively feeding in a good spot. Unfortunately the fog had mostly lifted, the water was very choppy and I couldn't get down to a low angle without trespassing. I spent the next few hours running back and forth along a bridge trying to catch the swans together with their heads up (a rarity). I was hoping for crisp detail, but these guys were about 75-100 meters out. They were moving around fast enough to make tripod use cumbersome, and my 1.4X teleconverter won't autofocus at 400mm. This is the best I could do handheld with just the 400mm in the cold wind and mist.
So anyway, I get home and read the challenge description again. Uh, oh... looks like the topic isn't so much "peace in general" as it is as sort of zen-like inner harmony (human). Bah! Too late to shoot a new idea, so this is it. Probably a sub-6 DNMC target, but after all that effort, it's getting entered dagnabbit!
Processing: Convert from RAW, boost/shift the blues and cyans, lighten the yellows several times to get the necks whiter, Channel Mixer for saturation, Noise Ninja, Levels, Curves, USM and added border.
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 149 Avg (all users): 6.9534 Avg (commenters): 7.8519 Avg (participants): 6.6458 Avg (non-participants): 7.0319 Views since voting: 7835 Views during voting: 391 Votes: 236 Comments: 53 Favorites: 8 (view)
Beautifully done. The dark background makes the bright yellow bills and white stand out nicely.
After trying to photograph birds on the water, I have a new appreciation for just how hard it is to do well, and this is beyond well, well into excellent.
I like the photo, but the story that goes with it is even better. I find shots are more memorable when the photographer takes puts some detailed comments in about how and why the shot was taken - you get an idea of the effort involved and appreciate the photo all the more.
Ah, so many people go by the challenge name only, and not the challenge description. Plus, I think this picture evokes a sense of zen-like inner harmony anyway. So you were definitely good for this challenge. :-) That color blue is just amazing... really lovely.
Love the story and the photo turned out beautifully. Very peaceful quality to it, and of course the blues are always appealing. Glad to see your efforts pay off in a great way...not just with the ribbon, but with a wonderful photo in its own right.
This is one of my favorites. Love the sharpness on the geese and how they pop out from the background. There are some compression artifacts in the background towards the upper edge but that's a nit. Very well done
Nice, I like the blue/black tones and the black/blue border works good for me, the composition of the swans is a nice break to the foreground and balances the tree in the background very nicely,
Oh, this is absolutely perfect! I IMMEDIATELY liked it when it came up on screen, which is a very good indicator for your score (many voters usually don't slow down much).
Wonderful composition. The colors work great together. The swans are right on in positioning, as are all technicals (focus, lighting, etc...).
If I could give this an 11 I would! Very nice piece of work. Congrats!!!
Fantastic image. The hazy soft blue of the water is the perfect background for the contrast of the white birds. And the little splash of color of their bills is wonderful.
Just the Two of Us
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