Riverside Winter Walk

For the second time recently, I ported my longest lens on a winter walk. A main reason on each occasion was that I was keeping my eye out for swans. A few have been hanging around and have been photographed by others.

Alas, they haven't been where I have been, at least not when I have been there. It doesn't bother me too much as I am not a keen wildlife photographer, but it would still be a diversion.

Also for the second time, there were ducks way out on the river. They are not mallards but black and white ducks. But they are too far away to identify. Even with my telephotos, they were fuzzy blobs. I tried but failed..

I did take a few photos of this amazing tree. Having my telephoto lens meant that I could not get the whole thing in the frame, and I think maybe that turned out to be a good thing. I converted them to mono in post. Winter is almost b&w anyway.

There was just enough snow sticking to the tree to make them appealing photos,

We continued through the park with Sue leading the way, but that tree had been pretty much the main highlight, and I didn't find anything else to shoot except for Sue walking.

At the other end of the park, however, I spotted a fellow coming with his two dogs. I pointed my camera to an open spot and waited until they walked into the frame.

Dogs being dogs, they wanted to visit, even though we were quite a long way off.

It had been a pleasant walk on a sunny and a not too cold winter day. It was nice to take a few photos as I have been in a photographic funk for the past month. It has been weeks since I have bothered to post on Flickr, which I have been doing regularly for many years.

I did get some swan pics around this time last year, and I imagine that they look pretty well the same this year.