Bob Grier’s From the West: Spring is around the corner.

Swan breeding pair in the Sandhills

Tuesday was an “out roaming”, looking-for-photos day. I drove east through the Sandhills, just a blush of green grass growing where the snow piled heavier this winter. Small groups of mule deer were enjoying the fresh growth.

I hiked into the Snake River Canyon below Merritt Reservoir, pretty difficult to wax too creative with the mid-day sun turning on the high contrast. The canyon must be getting steeper, 35 to 40 years ago it seemed easier to climb.

There were a few white water details that caught my eye, and I happily went about the task of isolating a few details here and there, but nothing too serious.

On the way back west on Highway 20 from Nenzel, a pair of swans on a small marsh along the highway agreed to cooperate, preening and going about their business. Another opportunity to test a new lens.

I assume this is a breeding pair taking a break from the larger marsh or lake  nearby that they may have used for years.

As a technical “photographic” situation, the birds were back-lit, their brilliant white plumage contrasted with their dark bills and legs. I’m always amazed, after years of using cameras and slide film, even with hand-held light meters that helped solve problems — how accurate the automatic, through the lens metering cameras can be. I didn’t load the swan image files into PhotoShop, just cropped and did a few minor steps in LightRoom here on the laptop.

Back-lit wings

As I continued photographing, the camera blinked the message that the memory card was full, time to change. I hadn’t used this particular camera for more than a year and reloading a CF card that was in the camera case was interesting. Image files, including the last image shown here taken in April, 2010 appeared as I reviewed the memory card prior to formatting it to erase any earlier images. Glad I looked, there were  biologists working collection nets on Island Lake and a egret in breeding plumage shown here.

Anyway, it was great to get out and see the first signs of Spring.