I booked a last minute trip up to northern Minnesota this past weekend. Perhaps I should have looked at a weather forecast first. It didn’t break 0 degrees the entire weekend and lows were typically between minus 20 and 30. They even issued a windchill advisory of -50. It was cold. And the wildlife seemed to be feeling it too as it was pretty slow from a photographic standpoint. That said, I was able to find a few subjects and get some images that I like. This trumpeter swan was resting on the ice early Sunday morning. I was using the foreground snow to create a nice blurred frame around the head when all of a sudden the swan yawned. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/2000th of a second.
Are you sure it was a yawn, and not some plea along the lines of: “HELP! I’m fx!**#x! freezing out here!!!” — or something like that with unprintable words. Big kudos to you for going out in those temps! (I bet your cameras don’t like those temps either!)
What an embarrassing social situation. How do you tell a bird that it should probably have figured the whole migration thing by now, without making it feel stupid or self-conscious?
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I booked a last minute trip up to northern Minnesota this past weekend. Perhaps I should have looked at a weather forecast first. It didn’t break 0 degrees the entire weekend and lows were typically between minus 20 and 30. They even issued a windchill advisory of -50. It was cold. And the wildlife seemed to be feeling it too as it was pretty slow from a photographic standpoint. That said, I was able to find a few subjects and get some images that I like. This trumpeter swan was resting on the ice early Sunday morning. I was using the foreground snow to create a nice blurred frame around the head when all of a sudden the swan yawned. Nikon D500 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/2000th of a second.
Fab photo, Sean. It looks as though you took this from a low angle. Very well done!
Are you sure it was a yawn, and not some plea along the lines of: “HELP! I’m fx!**#x! freezing out here!!!” — or something like that with unprintable words. Big kudos to you for going out in those temps! (I bet your cameras don’t like those temps either!)
What an embarrassing social situation. How do you tell a bird that it should probably have figured the whole migration thing by now, without making it feel stupid or self-conscious?