![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tundra-swan-0702-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"tundra-swan-0702-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIt was tough shooting yesterday morning at Bear River MBR.<\/p>\n
Temps were around 20\u00b0 F. with a 30 – 35mph wind that wasn’t in the forecast. So with my pickup heater off to prevent image softness due to temperature disparity and my window partially to completely open to accommodate my pool noodle lens rest and\/or my lens I about froze my keister off. That wind was brutal.<\/p>\n
And me fumbling around with the controls of a new camera I’m still unfamiliar with didn’t help matters in the least..<\/p>\n
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The most interesting images I managed to get were of bathing Tundra Swans. Because of their size, swans have to bathe a little differently than many smaller birds. They’re just too big to furiously shake their feathers in order to throw water all around so they dip their head, neck and upper body into the water, then rise up and allow thin sheets of water to flow sequentially backward over their entire body. They do it repeatedly.<\/p>\n
The process is surprisingly effective, as evidenced by this photo. Here we see very little feather detail because sheets of water are flowing backward over the entire bird – all the way to the tip of the tail. It doesn’t make for very exciting photos, in part because there’s very little water flying around, but I think it’s an interesting behavioral adaptation for a very large bird.<\/p>\n
For those wondering why I didn’t include image techs, I left them out because they were highly inappropriate for the situation. When the swans started bathing I couldn’t find the right control on the new camera in time so I just went with the settings I had.<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say, my shutter speed was 1\/8000 when 1\/1250 or so would have been plenty fast enough.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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It was tough shooting yesterday morning at Bear River MBR.<\/p>\n