Mute Swan (c)

I captured this image at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. This swan is one of the many maintained at that lake, a descendant of royal swans on the Thames River sent to Lakeland by the Queen Of England in the 1950's. I guess viewers will either love or hate the background. It is a reflection from building bordering the lake. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, image captured at 400mm
1/4000 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 900 Auto 1 WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped slightly for composition and presentation

This is a unique shot Joe. The bird is sharp with good details. I like the background but as presented, I do find it quite distracting. I think it would've worked if the water was calmer with fewer ripples. I might even crop the photo a bit tighter just to make the swan stand out a bit more. I like the attempt though. It's different compared to the usual swan photos.

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Originally Posted by Aditya Sridhar

This is a unique shot Joe. The bird is sharp with good details. I like the background but as presented, I do find it quite distracting. I think it would've worked if the water was calmer with fewer ripples. I might even crop the photo a bit tighter just to make the swan stand out a bit more. I like the attempt though. It's different compared to the usual swan photos.

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Hi Adi, thank you for commenting and viewing, very much appreciated. I just happen to have a tighter crop, most times I work up different versions. Here is a tighter crop.

Repost is a big improvement! :S3:

I too prefer the tighter cop, the swan is well rendered and the smaller background competes less.

The swan looks great but i am struggling to like this image because of the BG.
If the water had been calm without ripples, then this would have been excellent.

For me the background colors complements on the beak color. I like it as it is.

When I saw this image I thought about two other versions of this image one to have calmer water with non ripples, another slower shutter speed to have eye sharp and render water smoother...

TFS

Much prefer the repost. The colors and ripples in the water makes this one for me. Nice and sharp.