Growing up in the duck weed

[Randy Stout]

This black swan cygnet was imaged at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary near my home. It was a very cloudy, rainy morning, but I really needed to get out. Flight images weren't going to happen, very dark, but I saw this family of black swans. I estimate that this cygnet is 4 weeks old.

D300 500mm/ f4 at f/8 1/200s ISO 800 -1.0 EV SB800 c beamer, -.7 EC Gitzo, Wimb V2

I wished for a slightly lower shooting angle, but the railings precluded that.

NX2 for post, v small crop for comp, USM, curves.

Certainly appreciate comments as always. It was good to be out, even on a rainy day!

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, you have captured the perfect head angle, and what incredible detail too. One young fluff ball, and love the weed on the beak. Great use of flash, and this is nice and sharp. I like the weedy water. Great capture.

[Dave Phillips]

love the deep downy texture here Randy....that and the bill are beautifully rendered

[Doug Brown]

Nice sharpness and good use of fill flash. I like the water droplets. Did you underexpose in-camera for shutter speed or to tone down the BG?

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

I had been taking pictures of the adults, and its easy to blow the white band on the bill and sometimes the reds in the bill, hence the EV compensation on this one, I didn't get it switched for the cygnet. The green channel not surprisingly was pretty hot with this background, so probably still would have been -.3 with perfect exposure, but I could have gone a little closer to 0 than I did. Good pickup.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the mood and setting in this one. I might give it a little bit more room and for some reason it looks as if it needs some CCW rotation but I'm not sure about that.

[Arthur Morris]

A beautifully designed image and the duckweed really adds interest. I'm with Ax on a bit of CCW rotation. Please confirm that this is an exotic. I would just lighten the black of the face a bit.

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

This is a black swan cygnet, so yes, an import. The local bird sanctuary has had a single mating pair for a several years.

I have already lightened the face a bit. This guy is just starting to have some dark color come in. The adults of course are black.

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the info, Randy. Heck, the face looks fine this morning!

[Kobus Tollig]

Ditto on Arthur about the face. I would also add some space on the left. Great shot still well done on this