Swans in St James’ Park

I was walking through St James’ Park the other day.  For those of you that don’t know the park, there is a lake in the middle, with pelicans, swans, geese, various ducks, and, of course, my heron; the subject of a previous post.

There is a little bridge that crosses the lake; it’s a real hotspot for tourists.   For me, it’s a short-cut through on my walk up to Oxford Street, but that doesn’t stop me enjoying the beauty of what is going on around me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera accessible when I walked over there this week but I saw the most fantastic sight.  A young swan, a sub adult (I believe that is the correct term, this bird was almost the same size as its parent, but still had the brown-grey feathers of an immature bird) came into land on the lake.  It was closely followed by one of the parents.

It was fascinating to see.  The still flap their wings, a bit like the flaps on an aircraft, the way they tilt when the ‘plane comes into land, but it was the feet that got me.  The swans tilted their feet to act like brakes and touched down just like an aircraft coming into land.  I wish there had been more of them to watch.

One of the [many] joys of living in London, there is so much to see, but it’s not all about the man-made stuff.  This is why I love it so much.

©Susan Shirley 2014

Chasing the Heron

After last week’s fiasco with the heron (more correctly, my failure to photograph the bird when it was close to me) I decided to take my camera into work and see if I could get my own photograph of him.  Friday was such a beautiful day, it was ideal for a stroll around the park.

We walked around to where I’d seen the heron previously.  He was there, but soon flew into the lake to pick up a fish.  Which he did successfully.  I’ve never seen a heron eat a fish before.  Clearly his mother didn’t teach him to chew his food.  Anyway, I waited for about ten minutes and got a few snaps of him, but really struggled with sun on the viewfinder.  When I got back to the office, I found I’d taken some interesting good photographs…  Not what I’d hoped for but interesting nonetheless, and if I hadn’t been so fixated on the heron, I’d probably be blogging about them.

©Susan Shirley 2013

To Photograph or Not to Photograph

I was walking around St James’ Park the other day with a friend.  We do this walk sometimes, to get some exercise, and it gives us a chance to catch up with what’s going on in the other’s life, although this was actually the first time we’d been able to meet up for a couple of months.

As we were walking, my friend said to me,

“Is that a heron?”

I turned and looked, and it was.  I even said to him,

“I really should take a photograph.”

But I didn’t.  Why not?  My photographer friends will kill me when they read this.

As non-fiction writers, conventional magazines (and some e-zines) often ask us to provide photographs to go with our articles; and, of course, it is much less expensive to take your own photographs than to (a) pay someone else, or (b) buy them from somewhere.   (It’s also cheaper to get them developed yourself, rather than have to take copies of photographs people have lent you, as I know to my cost.  You can’t always be sure that you will get them back from magazines so it’s best to have copies you can return to whoever was kind enough to lend the photographs to you.)  It’s also quicker to take your own photographs than have to ask someone else to send you theirs.

So why didn’t I take the photograph?  I didn’t have my camera with me, but I do have a reasonable camera on my Smartphone, so I could have used that.  I wasn’t specifically thinking of writing an article or a blog about the park when I saw the heron, it’s true, but the fact that he is featuring in this blog proves a point:  if you see something of interest, take a photograph.

My writing course features a whole module about taking photographs and which type of camera to use.  And since studying that, I really have tried to improve.

One of my work colleagues has even made me a crib card with the centre cut-out (to resemble the viewfinder on a camera) giving me prompts as to what to consider when taking a photograph: foreground interest, leading lines, rule of three, diagonal lines.  I can’t remember the others.  I’ve even downloaded a book on my e-reader to help me improve my photography.  (I’ve actually downloaded about a year’s worth of books, and keep downloading more, so it’s no great surprise that I haven’t read that one yet.)  So am actually keen to try to develop this skill.

I regret not taking the photograph of the heron.  I suppose am just not confident with a camera yet.  I will keep on trying and someday soon, you’ll see photographs included in my blogs.  And I’m going back to the park to see if I can see that heron again…

Love and Light xx

Post Script

Another colleague took this photograph for me, but it’s not as close as when I saw him…

©Susan Shirley 2013