Another shot from last weekends trip to Martin Mere, I have now finished all the images I want to put in the gallery, although I am planning another trip back there this week sometime. I managed to get some shots of a marsh harrier and a kingfisher, but they were a bit too small in the frame even at 400mm, so I had to crop the shots quite heavily. I have ordered a 1.4x TC and I am going to go back and try again with some extra reach. I did get some nice shots of other birds on the wild part of the centre, plus some in the captive collection area.

Anyway, to this PaD shot, it was taken late afternoon from a hide, overlooking the part of the Mere favoured by the whooper swans that migrate here for the winter. The weather had been overcast most of the day, with a few short showers, but at this time the sun broke through the clouds and shone through with some beautiful rays. I switched to a wide-angle zoom and took a couple of shots, one exposed for the mere, one for the sky, then combined them in PS, taking the opportunity to add a touch of colour to the sky, which was actually just a dark grey.

I hope that you like it, please leave a comment if you can spare a minute, I appreciate all feedback and constructive criticism. Thanks.

Clicking on the thumbnail below will take you to the first image in my Martin Mere gallery, if you would like to see the other shots I got that day.