icy hike

In cold snowy January I went for a hike with some friends. I carried the heavy white lens through the snowy landscape to a lake nearby. In a wonderfully pink light I saw these swans. I placed the camera close to the ground and therefore water level at the shore of the lake and got this pretty picture.

Without the reflections of the sunlight the lake was a warm brown tone contrasting nicely with the white feathers.

Balancing the color in this picture, I learned that snow is not a good white reference. It's actually pretty blue. I feel I got it right here and some of the snow is golden from the low sun and blue tinted in the shadows with some green still peaking through in between. In the middle of all of that: A brown duck, bathed in the last rays, gives us a skeptical over-the-shoulder look.

Although not too sharp, I still like this picture. It has a strong expression of: "I'm out of here!"