January brought a lot of exciting aspects to my photography. First, we were finally treated with the wintery conditions I have been longing for, although I haven’t made the best use of the conditions yet. The snow is forecasted to keep falling, so fingers crossed I’m able to be out when the snow is good. Second, I finally took the long-overdue plunge and upgraded my camera body and lenses. I’m not one to talk too much about gear, but I’m toying with the idea of dedicating a blog post to the gear upgrades and discuss what I learned from using an entry-level DSLR for 4 years.

As, for the photo for this month, it was one of my first images taken with my new camera. This was taken at the local marsh that I frequent quite a bit over the spring and summer months, but very rarely visit in the winter. I was curious as to what wildlife I was going to find in mid-winter at the marsh. To my surprise there were still patches of open water in the pond, allowing some swans to still inhabit the area. Lucky enough, one of these patches was not too far off of one of the main boardwalks, so I was easily able to take photos of these two swans.

I sat and waited with these swans for a good hour or so as they swam around the little water they had access to. I was waiting for the perfect moment when they would come together and show a bit of personality. Soon enough I got just what I was looking for. The two swans slowly swam up to each other and greeted one another, posing in just the right position. I just love the subtle nature of this encounter between the two swans and the slight personality on display.

This particular photo is far from perfect, but it is a step in the direction I want my wildlife photography to go.