The Sunset Swans Soar

After work today, I stopped by a nearby lake to take some photos of the migratory swans 🦢 from Russia 🇷🇺. It’s something I have done before, but I realize time can give us different perspective and inspiration. In my post from January 2023, which you can find here.

You’ll notice my eyes were more focused on capturing the swans in the lake at that point in time. In this post, the photos taken today (Jan 16th, 2024), I was more focused on taking pictures of the birds in flight or about to take Off. What happened? Where did this inspiration come from?

Well it came from a fellow photographer, a more professional one ☝🏿… well, according to his super zoom lens. We chatted for a bit in the bitter winter 🥶 wind. It was so cold my fingers were almost numb and in pain even though I had gloves on. I talked to him a bit about his lens and the quality photos it takes and before I knew it, I was messing up his shot.

“Darn I missed them”, he said.

He was referring to the incoming swans 🦢 preparing to land.

“Oh, you are taking photos of the birds in flight”.

“Yes, exactly”.

Made sense, and I remained silent for the time being. Though I mucked up one of his chances to snap the birds in flight, I made it up by spotting some swans coming from a distance. His friends nearby asked if he got the shots to which he replied, “perfectly”.

Ah, I didn’t feel so bad about mucking up his other chances of a great sunset shot of the swans in flight. With this new perspective, I went ahead and snapped swans in flight or in take off of mode. The said guy had a knack for knowing when the birds were gonna take off, I could tell this is something he does regularly.

“Here they go, they are about to fly”, as he got in shooting position. And he was spot on. Well it’s not rocket science, the birds would eventually fly off into the sunset to find a spot to rest for the night, but this guy knew the exact moment a flock of them were preparing to take off.

Now, looking at these photos, I kind of wish I got different variations of the what I saw that day and not just one dimension ( birds in flight). But I guess you can call it the birds in flight edition 😂. Until next time 👋.