I’ve had other posts recently with swans so, sorry if you are getting fed up with them. (Makes a change from cormorants I guess!) This is a simple one. A swan was swimming towards me at the end of the day and the backlight gave some nice colour to the water and emphasised the outline of the swan nicely.
A group of swans was swimming up the Itchen as I was out walking one Sunday morning. Suddenly they decided to get airborne, and I was almost caught out by them. The first two were by me before I was able to get a shot, but I was very close to them and struggled to get something framed. The third was close behind them and I was able to pick it up earlier. A swan at low level over the water is a graceful looking creature. I suspect I will be out and about trying to get more swan flying shots before too long.
I was taking a walk along the River Itchen in Winchester and there were some swans swimming up the river towards me. One was swimming along quite normally but a second was following it and was swimming in a strange way. It had its head low to the water and was swimming in a surging motion rather than the regular paddling. I don’t know whether this was some sort of mating action or just a weird swan! Video seemed to be the best way to record this.
The River Test really should be considered multiple rivers because it splits and rejoins as it moves across the Hampshire countryside. You can cross all sorts of minor streams, but you do also get some larger crossings where the river is well defined. One of these is the road to Longstock. There is a weir across the river just upstream of the bridge and it seemed to be flowing pretty well when we were there. We had experienced lovely weather, but I guess quite a bit of rain had preceded our arrival. There was a single swan on the river, and it seemed to be making some effort to move upstream.
One of the nice aspects of mirrorless cameras is using the tilting screen to see the shot while holding the camera away from you. I took advantage of this when I was near a swan at Mottisfont. We were walking alongside the water and the swan was swimming towards us. I wanted to get a close shot from low down but swans are not always the most friendly beasts. Getting myself down there didn’t seem like a good plan. Holding the camera out while looking at the screen seemed a better idea and the swan, while not totally enthusiastic, was less annoyed that way.
