For my day job in advertising, I used to shoot a lot of commercials in Toronto. Whenever there was down time I would head out with my camera to see what I could find. On this particular evening it was a mute swan in a city park on Lake Ontario. There wasn’t much light left, but just enough to capture the last color of the day. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second.
There are so many reasons why this is a brilliant photograph. Color, composition, time of day, contrast of rock to swan, water to sky- one of your best Sean.
Thanks Michael. This is one of those shots that got lost in a folder and I just discovered it the other night. I was on a Folgers shoot with Grey. Always nice to tag a bit of personal time with the camera onto a commercial shoot.
Amazing. It’s really rare to capture one of these swans in one of the few moments of the day that they’re not practicing their trumpet. Those geese are machines man, trumpet machines.
It looks like this one has an orange bill, which would make it a “Mute Swan”, since I believe adult Trumpeter Swans always have full black bills. Could it be some reflection on the bill from the sunset colors? I’m mostly curious because we have swans wintering here in northern Washington State this winter and I just recently found out that some of the birds I thought were Trumpeter Swans turned out to be Tundra Swans (which have a small bit of yellow on their bills). As for the photo — the first thing I thought of when I saw it was the great Eagles song “Peaceful, Easy Feeling”. Really nice one, Sean! [here’s info on Mute Swans which are an introduced (invasive) species here in North America: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/migratory-bird-conservation/managing-conflicts/invasive-species-mute-swan.html ]
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
For my day job in advertising, I used to shoot a lot of commercials in Toronto. Whenever there was down time I would head out with my camera to see what I could find. On this particular evening it was a mute swan in a city park on Lake Ontario. There wasn’t much light left, but just enough to capture the last color of the day. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/1000th of a second.
What could be a better photo , so calming & pleasing to the eye, you always seem to find the beauty in simplicity of the subject
Thanks Sean
If only the swan could see itself in this peaceful photo. Thanks for sharing.
There are so many reasons why this is a brilliant photograph. Color, composition, time of day, contrast of rock to swan, water to sky- one of your best Sean.
Thanks Michael. This is one of those shots that got lost in a folder and I just discovered it the other night. I was on a Folgers shoot with Grey. Always nice to tag a bit of personal time with the camera onto a commercial shoot.
Michael nailed it with his list of reasons that define why this image is tops!
Amazing. It’s really rare to capture one of these swans in one of the few moments of the day that they’re not practicing their trumpet. Those geese are machines man, trumpet machines.
It looks like this one has an orange bill, which would make it a “Mute Swan”, since I believe adult Trumpeter Swans always have full black bills. Could it be some reflection on the bill from the sunset colors? I’m mostly curious because we have swans wintering here in northern Washington State this winter and I just recently found out that some of the birds I thought were Trumpeter Swans turned out to be Tundra Swans (which have a small bit of yellow on their bills). As for the photo — the first thing I thought of when I saw it was the great Eagles song “Peaceful, Easy Feeling”. Really nice one, Sean! [here’s info on Mute Swans which are an introduced (invasive) species here in North America: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/migratory-bird-conservation/managing-conflicts/invasive-species-mute-swan.html ]
You’re absolutely right Karen. I had been photographing trumpeter swans the day before and this mute swan was inadvertently put into that folder.