Boxley Swans B/W w/ Repost

I took this shot last February while attending Tim's B/W workshop. When returning to Cloudland to process our morning images the Boxley Swans were out and surprised us by swimming right over to the bevy of photographers snapping away. They posed for about 10 minutes before becoming bored and swimming away.

I've never been too sure about this particular image and hence the delay in posting it. I played around with it and converted to B/W tonight and wondered whether it passes muster. Any thoughts? Thanks for looking!

10D, 75-300 @ 125mm, ISO 200, 1/30 sec @ f/22, curves, sat, sel. color, sharpen. Crop about 15%

One of the new features of ACR 4 in CS3 is that you can click and drag on any spot in a photo like that to change the tone curve - lighten or darken any part of it depending on the color data present - it is really something to see. This photo could use a little bit more contrast, a curve or Local Contrast Enhancement (but you would need to do it on a layer and paint back in the back of the swan in front).

So far these guys have not returned to Boxley yet this year, but I hear the flock at Magness Lake is the largest ever...

Killer composition Wayne! I like how the water tones cut diagonally through the frame, and how the swans and reflections are positioned in their own half-frame. Nicely done!

Thanks Bill, I wondered if anyone would notice that design element. I was specifically waiting for the swans to separate into those areas, and while it was not quite perfect, it was close enough for me.

Have fun tomorrow shooting the sunrise!

I took another shot at this. What do you think?

Better contrast in the second version, Wayne, and I like the elliptical frame. If you had just a tad more separation of the foreground duck from the shadows it might have been slightly better, but I like the photo. Hope the swans come back to Boxley this year!