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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Gallery Ten: A Walk in the Park – only minutes away > Farewell Plunge, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2003
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Farewell Plunge, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2003
12-NOV-2003

Farewell Plunge, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2003

The swan I feature in the previous two pictures repeatedly dives to wet his feathers. I express the force of its dive from behind, using a very fast shutter speed. The result: an incongruous image of a swan abstracted by a sheet of flying droplets, offering an ideal end (pun intended) to this sequence. This three photograph sequence, as well as the other images I display in this gallery, tell us that we can find opportunities for expressive travel photographs within our own communities as easily as we can in more exotic, unfamiliar places far from home.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1250s f/5.6 at 28.8mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original
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Phil Douglis 08-Feb-2007 06:19
Thanks, Ceci, for telling us what really is going on here. This image has to be one of my favorite wildlife images. It shows us little of the swan, but it says so much about it.
Cecilia Winston 08-Feb-2007 05:51
Having spent much of my life around water and barnyard fowl, this picture is intimately familiar and greatly pleasurable. Waterbirds and their erectile skin attachments and their lavish bathing and preening rituals, are almost purely meditative for the viewer. I have been lulled almost asleep watching a white goose we once had going through his toilette display. The care & time they lavish on their pinions is a great lesson in focus, attention, prophylaxis, because unoiled feathers = waterlogged fowl. Clean feathers are achieved through this violent "rise-and-vigorous-shake" routine, which never ceases to pull a delighted mirror shiver from me whenever I see it. Lovely, light, filled with grace and purpose! Thank you!
Sue Robertson 08-Feb-2006 04:06
Wow. This is great page of work here. The group shot is oustanding.
Phil Douglis 10-Mar-2005 05:51
Thanks so much, River, for these kind words. We are what we photograph and we photograph what we are. In many ways, we also can identify more strongly with images that remind us of ourselves. That is what is happening here, for both me and for you. I am always doing five things at once. My desk is a mess. The ice cream that I started an hour ago is still sitting there -- the residue melted by my keyboard. (It's a good thing my wife is sleeping and can't see it.) But yet I know what I am doing, where i am going, and what i want to do when I get there. So yes, these qualities come through in my images -- energy, direction, purpose, but also a bit of a mess here and there as well. I loved your interpretation. This is so much more than just another flustered swan. It can also be you, and myself as well.
River King 10-Mar-2005 04:55
Phil, I love this shot!! Full of actions, dynamics, and energies! Fantanstic! In a way, it's a "messy" photo because that water splash goes every where, but your high speed shutter freezes the action, and gives a clear view on what is going on, the directions of water splash, feathers, so clear...

I don't know why I love this picture so much... it gives me a sense of clear and strong energy and power... sometimes our lives are just like that... maybe it's also a refelction of my own life, full of energy, kinda "messy" but with strong and clear power and direction...
Dirk Vermeirre 01-Dec-2003 02:42
Hi Phil,

Thanks so much for your very fine appreciation, you made me blush. You are right and that's very fine seem from you that I mostly can predict (after spending hundreds of hours near to the swans) their behavior and that's indeed the only way to make such pictures, it goes incredible fast, in the beginning I hear a splash of water and I realised that I missed something that I would have photographed. I really enjoyed observing them and found it a pity that I couldn't understand their language. They must hear also very well as I could see often that they where reacting to something and there was nothing to see. About a minute later I saw what it was (a group of other swans in the sky flying over their area, a kajak, they are very afraid of that I think as they always fly away when there is kajak on the river (even when it's quite far away from them).
With warm regards,
Dirk
Phil Douglis 30-Nov-2003 23:52
Dirk, it is an honor to have your swans sharing a page with my swan -- and an honor for me to share ideas with one of pbase's most respected photographers.

Phil
Phil Douglis 30-Nov-2003 23:50
Dirk -- your swans are amazing. You only make pictures such as these by understanding the behavior and personality of the subject. You knew what these swans were going to do before they did it -- and that's why you were able to capture such memorable images. Thanks,
Phil
Dirk Vermeirre 30-Nov-2003 15:33
Oh sorry Phil, I didn't know that it was possible that images would show up here, that was not my intention, I thought that I just add the links, oh now I now I used these to show samples of the 80-400mm Nikkor to someone else and I copied the link information. Hope that you can remove the .jpg so that they show up in your galleries anymore, sorry.

Warm regards,
Dirk
Dirk Vermeirre 30-Nov-2003 15:30
Hi Phil,

No thanks needed, it was a pleasure to see that picture and now to read you thoughts and comment. I was indeed amazed to see that I could spend so much time on a theme and that I always could make different images, day after day. Some days I was observing and photographing the swans for about 12 hours. As it is a difficult subjects, always moving, so bright white, often changing light situations and backgrounds I think that I learned a lot from doing this and focussing on one subject for a longer time and lots of hours can learn us a lot I think. I think that this swan exercise gives me now the possibililty to react faster and see in a glance if I like the composition (in the meantime I'm focussing on people as subject). And thanks a lot for your very fine appreciation of my work. To thank you here are some swan images for your Phil (I hope to find time to arrange and select and process a lot of the last months in the coming months).





With warm regards,
Dirk
Phil Douglis 30-Nov-2003 00:40
Hi, Dirk -- I am delighted that you enjoyed my swan shower -- coming from someone who has photographed swans more than 30,000 times (that's a lifetime of photographs for some folks), your comments are very, very special to me. When I was shooting in a workshop last year in the Bering Sea with National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting, I learned that he had shot more than 30,000 pictures of puffiins for a Geographic story. We called Frans the "Puffin Man". As far as I am concerned, you have earned the honor of being known as the "Swan Man".

Thanks for your observations, Dirk -- everytime I photograph a swan, I'll be thinking of you.
Dirk Vermeirre 29-Nov-2003 02:33
Hi Phil,

Great !!! And so correct what you wrote their, I was so fascinated by these animals that I started photographing them for months and months, early in the morning, in the fog, in the rain, at evening, with cygnets etc., I've made more then 30.000 images of them so I can witness here that your observation was very correct and this one was a real joy for me to see, thanks !
Phil Douglis 24-Nov-2003 03:18
Thanks, Jane, for your comment. I find that being a photographer can make you much more aware of your surroundings. I am always looking for ways to make extraordinary images of ordinary things -- such as in this photo of a swan on a pond not far from my own home. I always try to keep in mind that its not what I photograph that's important -- its how, and why, I make the picture that can matter most.

Phil
mamaqilla 24-Nov-2003 02:23
I love this image. And, I like your idea and comments about being aware of what surrounds us. Thank you !
Phil Douglis 17-Nov-2003 18:21
Thanks, Carol, for the wonderful comment. In order to abstract a photograph, I usually have to do something with my camera, such as move in very close, or shoot with backlight, or find a vantage point that significantly alters the subject's appearance. In this case, however, all I had to do was to shoot the instant before me. The swan abstracts the image for me by throwing that spray of water behind him.
Carol E Sandgren 17-Nov-2003 06:29
Absolutely fabulous shot! You've Stopped the action and yet the lines of the wing are still clear and we know exactly what is happening. I can almost hear the splash of the water as I look at this picture!
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