You are wrong Cristina, as you may see from the EXIF info I am at about 7.5m from the swan family and the pond in the front of Huis Clingendael is quite isolated from the dog-owners walk route and other people. Here are several other photos:
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/2571/img0870ow7.jpg; the male swan securing the pond from other birds,
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/6341/img0873lq3.jpg; another view - the mother with the swan-babies (10m distance),
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5992/img0881fn1.jpg; the male swan from the right side of the pond. The background building is the Huis Clingendael in the centre of the Clingendael Park. There are no other birds or people there
As you may see from the EXIF info the photos are taken almost the same time. The swans are very careful parents and they choose only safe places for their babies. They secure the area too from any other birds. They need to be careful all the time because of the many dog-owners coming there and training their dogs to jump into water not caring about the nesting birds and their dogs instinct behavior. I was attacked from their dogs several times too when feeding the swans.
You may have a look athttp://maps.google.nl and search for "The Hague, Clingendael". Click on the button "Satelliet". The green arrow is pointing to the entrance of the Clingendael Park - the alley above is going to the Huis Clingendael, the pond at the left side is the place where the photo is taken. This view would clear up your wrong idea about the Cliengendael Park in The Hague.
Roumen
Well, I guess the best way to express it is that it's too close to them. I see a reflection that seems to be a tree or something in the top of the frame. This gives me the sense that they're in a small pond. Now, that alone wouldn't be enough to rule out isolation, rather if the pond had nothing around it, or they were in fact in a large lake alone, that would be more of a sense of isolation to me. For all I can tell there is another swan family just out of frame, or people trying to feed them bread, or a whole bunch of children running around. I just don't get enough of a sense of the surroundings to feel "isolation" from this picture.
But maybe I'm construing the topic too narrowly. I've been guilty of it in the past...
Yes, SueAnne. I placed 3 photos according to the challenge requirements - the subjects are isolated by/in a cage, water, air. They are really in the center of a small pond at the light of the sunset. The green reflections are from the trees nearby. The male swan is also nearby spending a lot of energy to chase all the other birds away of the pond and his family. Typical attack of male swan:http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7701/img18168ef.jpg; :))
Roumen
