the mommy and daddy swans from last year are back at the pond. this guy, was busy looking for food with his head under what little water they could move around in, but as soon as he heard me say, "hello, old friend", he came to me and flapped his wings and the wife made a soft quacking sound. they were both standing on ice and they were slipping and sliding before they could get to me i had to break the ice with my tripod. i scared him a little bit but as soon as i apologized he calmed down. i ran back to where partner had parked and he had to drive to the nearest grocery store and bought multi-grain bread. the pair was quite the hungry lot and partner was quite happy to see and feed them again.
tonight we went back but they weren't around. it had started to rain hard and i suggested we walk around the big pond as they might be amongst the tall reeds at the back. i yelled, "hello, old friend" a couple of times and after a few minutes he came out and stood on the icy surface but he couldn't see us. then we saw the lady sticking her head from amongst the reeds. we figured they had already settled for the night so partner said we should leave them be and he would give them the food tomorrow morning. partner was quite amused that i made the daddy swan come out with my "old friend" call.
Isn't it fun making a wild pet? Buster Fuzzy Ears is getting quite used to me and even trusted me enough to come up on the deck and get his peanut with a 3 year old pointing to where it was! Well, I'm looking forward to all the swan pictures to come! Nice shot.
@cheribug - as long as they don't jump on me like dogs do. he stays in the water, i give him food. that's all. partner actually makes them eat off his hand, but i told him not to do that because he can transmit disease to them or vice versa. plus it's better for them to take their food from the water especially that the bread could be quite dry. thank you, my cheribug, also for the generous fav.
@olivetreeann - they're quite smart and they know probably who comes with the fresh bread and crispy lettuce! hahaha! thank you, ann. i myself am looking forward to a lot of swan photos.
@maggiemae - thank you, maggiemae. i didn't like the idea of feeding the swans or other wild animals. before i acquiesced to partner about feeding them, i did a lot of reading and inquiring. the advice from the 'swan sanctuary' in england is to feed them with fresh bread and never stale or mouldy as the moulds would kill them. they also advised against feeding them off your hands but these guys seemed very hungry yesterday they were practically eating off partner's hand.
Hello there, I'm your Get Pushed partner for this week. I accept your challenge of food photography. And don't be intimidated by the fact that I teach photographic composition. It's a relatively short presentation I give when invited to do so (and actually, I did so just last evening!) because I'm told it's something I'm good at. I don't teach all the technical stuff, or post-processing stuff, or any other stuff aspiring photographers might want to learn. :) As for my challenge for you, I'm challenging you to photograph religious architecture. Church, mosque, temple, synagogue, chapel, shrine... Try for good lighting, angles, and to convey the sense of spirituality in the reason for the building or space within. Enjoy!
@678tabby - i think that they are ready to have babies. they were making their nest as far as i could tell last night. thank you, june.
@ithinkithunk - thank you, kristen.