Swan

From Photo of the day (2009)

Took my walk along the dyke today after getting a new starter in my truck yesterday. Had fun with the dog and took some pictures of her, and a pipe and some scenery which could have made the cut for today, but on the way home just off the road was a flock of about 6 swans. I had my wide-angle lens on and as I slowed they started to walk off - I waited a bit to see if they would fly away or give me enough time to switch lenses again. I swapped over and managed to shoot a few pictures past the dog's nose through the (dirty) passenger window glass. At some point I rolled it down so I'm not sure if this shot was through the glass or not. They were still eye-ing me uncertainly so I drove up a bit slowly and stopped to get out. I took a few more before they figured they should fly - I would have had some decent shots of that if the darn dog hadn't jumped out the now open passenger window after they took off - just couldnt resist those giant ducks! Oh well. This one came out pretty nice.
I cropped it in Picasa and then used Photoshop to sharpen only the swan (Picasa's sharpening applies to the whole photo and picked out the corn stubble too much).