Dance with me, my love - B&W trumpeters

This pair went through a series of elaborate courtship movements yesterday at the local bird sanctuary. These are free ranging birds.

Despite being quite cantankerous at times, they can be very affectionate and loving as well.

D4 600VR f/5.6 1/2500 ISO 1000 hand held

Post: minor crop, selective sharpening, removed another swan from the foreground, smoothed a cluttered background

Advice and comments always appreciated.

As soon as I opened this file, I knew it had to be B&W

The dark coloration on the head and necks comes from feeding activity, and I also suspect the front bird hasn't completely lost some of its juvi coloration

Cheers

Randy

Hi Randy, I like the outspread wings of both swans, and showing good feather detail, and them both giving each other the 'loving' look puts it up a few notches. Although the swans pop, I feel you could maybe add a touch of contrast to the BG, or maybe darkening it.

Nice one the position of the birds captured really makes this special, the splash is perfectly captured.

I agree with Stuart that a darker BG may have worked more on this, however very nice as presented, i am loving this whole series and choice of B& W is looking good

Very nice poses Randy.
I would also like to see a color version.

Such a wonderful pose and interaction captured so beautifully Randy. It would make a nice image for those celebrating anniversary.

Beautiful moment captured Randy, aint Love grand !.....B&W makes a nice change and seems very suitable, such beautiful wings

I like very much as presented . . .

I like it, good call on the black and white. Great action and they contrast nice against the background.

Gary.

I like the action and can almost feel the movement. I also like the b&W version

This is a perfect B&W shot Randy. I like it allot and the HAs and wings are in great positions. The water splashing is very nice too. Did you do a basic conversion or did you use NIK Silver Efex Pro? Nice vision.

Thanks everyone for the comments, I appreciate your openness to my use of B&W.

I have done several versions, with different levels of contrast in the background. I did want to retain some sense of detail (albeit muted) in the bg, and found the higher contrast made it so dark that I lost any detail.

David, I should have mentioned, I used Nik Silver Efex for the conversion. I find it gives some nice options for B&W conversions.

Cheers

Randy

I like your choice of black and white. Well done.

Randy,

Nicely timed capture. The position of the two heads is great, and you were in great position to pull the trigger.

I like the BW conversion, and may have looked at a version with darker shadows - although it sounds like you may have already. When doing so, I think the beaks may have gotten just a bit too dark. Either way, nicely executed - both the capture and the edits!

Miguel

Randy, This converted nicely into a BW image with wonderful tones on the Swans and nice separation between the subject and BG.

Randy Sir:
Excellent image of dancing poses in black and white. Love the wing positions,nice flash of water and composition.

Regards,
Satish.