David Simper loaded a camera with film and walked to Stanley Park for some much needed fresh air and winter greenery and created a mini-photo essay on the swans and other birds that congregate around the boating lake.
Sometimes the easiest subjects are also the easiest to miss – why had it not occurred to me previously to dedicate some frames solely to the Stanley Park birds? They are so striking, particularly the swans. With bird flu once more a threat, now was definitely the time to get down there for some decent frames of our avian friends. Regrettably since my visit it appears that this nasty virus has returned and there have been several avian deaths.
Well one reason not to have done this previously is that the birds are surprisingly difficult to photograph, as they do move quite a lot – they tend to think you’ve got food and so move towards you. My favourite lens aperture setting is f5.6, which gives depth to a photograph, but doesn’t give you much depth of field, making focus difficult when the subject is waddling towards you wanting bread. I must say this can be great fun in the challenge.
The presence of whom I suspect to be one of the bird people of Stanley Park was a big help. This chap definitely did have food and the birds knew it. He was a better culinary prospect then the weird little bloke with his black eye box. I should have thought to nip into the corner shop, which usually has bread in the offers bin.
The scene is constantly changing presenting more and more promising frames, if you’re fast enough to catch them. Apart from the swans, these are not pin up poster species, but they all have their place and make their contribution.
While I regret not taking food, others had brought plenty and feeding the birds clearly never loses its charm at any age.
The lake, the trees, the bandstand all provide an excellent backdrop for these simple photographs; it couldn’t be better really. I might be there now, but the wind is howling again and as soon as I step out of that back door the rain will come teeming down.
I could easily have blasted off the entire 36 frames on the ever changing scene before me, but I must be disciplined and wanted to save half the film for the then upcoming Blackpool Community Darkroom photowalk. I was reasonably confident I had a least something in the can.
I always take a turn through the woods and round the back of the lake, past the heron island, naturally to see if there are any inhabitants. Some of the shyer species, such as coot and moor hen tend to hang out in this area. There used to be grebe, but they seem to have disappeared – a shame as I love to see them – let’s hope they return. There were indeed heron, sat on the barrier fence along with friends.
This was such a pleasant exercise and walk out, I hope that you enjoy these little snaps. I used my Leica CL camera fitted with my lovely Soviet Jupiter 50mm lens, shooting on Kentmere 400 iso film. This set up won’t allow me to photograph the smaller species in the park, such as nuthatch and tree creeper, but I’ll happily leave that to the specialists with their long lenses.
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