Cooling Down

Even the swans were feeling the heat today and retreated to this arbour in dappled shade beside a lily patch on the north bank of the Forth and Clyde Canal at Netherton. I blipped one of them yesterday cruising down the water, but as part of a wider composition showing the fluffy cloud reflections and the canal-side dwellings. Today it was the dappled light on their incandescent white plumage that caught my eye, together with the contrasting water lily foliage and reflections of the bushes. These determined the framing. It took a bit of adjusting of the curves (highlights and shadows) to produce a satisfactory image with such high contrast light.