The prompt I pulled out of the box of David Gibson’s Street Photography Challenge cards this week was to find something in the street that you find ugly at first, but after a longer look can see something beautiful about it.
By coincidence, his prompt title “Ugly Ducklings” suits my photo, for I found a swan that fits the bill. A twist on the fairy tale.
Gibson says on the prompt card: “Even if you can’t immediately recognise what you’re looking at, if it attracts you at all, for whatever reason, photograph it.” This is exactly why I took this photo, as I’d looked at the swan and asked it “What are you doing?”.
Though there’s no street in this picture, I was indeed walking along a riverside drive when some black swans swam up to the edge. I went over to admire them, and the sight of this one looking backwards made me think about the ugliness of the pose. I knew that soon it would straighten its neck and look forwards, and then it would resume the elegance that we all love in swans.
As a bonus, the rocks at the edge of the river make a beautiful background pattern in black and white beneath the black swan.
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Soundslikewish 