theme: Snowy Spindrift

[Nancy Bell]

From a day in Japan during a blizzard. I could only stay out about 1/2 hour at a time and then I had to go inside to clean the packed snow out of my camera and off me! I was surprised how much I loved shooting in the miserable, but so different, conditions! For this image I laid in the snow with a wide angle lens and flash. A few of the Whooper Swans were curious and would come close to see what was that lumpy thing lying on the ground!

Processed with Topaz adjust & impression, a Flypaper texture, PS gradient map and PS tweaks here and there.

[Dennis Bishop]

The pose of the swan is perfect, especially with the story that goes along with it. (Perhaps it's because it looks so much like the response I get when attempting to chase the deer out of our flower gardens.) It's nicely positioned with respect to that dark line, too. It's hard to know which tones in the background came from the weather and which from the texture, but the light diagonal areas at the top direct my attention to the swan like spotlights. Great job putting this together. And enduring the weather to get the shot.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Very envious...this is so lovely Nancy, and arty too...Love the luminous BG with its beautiful patterns, the mysterious, sketched silhouette of the subject and the pose. Viewing this image gave me endless pleasure and a sense of tranquility - beautifully framed and the presentation is superb, gives justice to this magnificent bird - I really like your work

Kind regards,

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very lovely. I like the line in the bg to ground the image, and the processing is really nice.

[gary ellwein]

I like low angle of view. Lying in the snow was worth the effort.

[Hazel Grant]

The textures, etc give an old world look. I like how the parallel of the beak and the triangle line combine for a forward looking movement

[Cheryl Slechta]

Nancy, what an adventure and what a beautiful, peaceful image. Great angle and pose - I'm sure the experience was worth the cold weather. I love the gold tones and the dark horizontal line is perfectly placed.

[Anita Bower]

You mean you lay down in the snow to take this picture?! I'm impressed!. I think I'm doing well to lie down on the grass. :-)
Beautiful soft colors and especially textures. Nice composition. Without your explanation, I would think the bird was walking in water.

[Paul Lagasi]

Its amazing how nice Whooper's can be, can't imagine them in the snow like this. Lovely composition.

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you all very much! Anita, laying down in the snow is not so hard, it's getting up !