Early morning on the banks of the River Ribble just outside of Preston I was photographing a beautiful Mute Swan on a stretch of the river that was mirror calm, the only movement being the gentle ring of ripples around the swan. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted this other swan coming, steaming in. Head down and wings curled he looked quite intimidating. Also with the rising sun breaking through the trees on the opposite bank this shot is beautifully lit.
This image contains some of my favourite elements, ripples, reflection and wildlife. What more could you wish?
The first of today's pictures is of the River Ribble at Frenchwood, looking towards Walton Le Dale, I really like the sky in this picture and I like the way the ripply clouds are counter-posed with the ripples in the river below.
The second picture is of the Riverside Walk and avenue of magnificent horse chestnut trees in Avenham Park. I had been waiting for a moment to capture the avenue with no people in it however I felt that the young family walking along add some extra interest to the image, after all the walkway was designed as just that, a walkway, so devoid of people it would actually be rather dull. I chose to shoot this image in monochrome because it emphasises the coldness of the day
As with yesterday's images today's shots were taken on Saturday in Preston and before the sun melted the frost I captured the minute crystals on the top of a couple of fence posts. Enlarged here you can see the intricate structure of each unique little shard which in reality were barely more than one or two millimeters tall. You can also see that while from a distance the frost looks like a white carpet it is in fact totally clear.
