{"id":2493,"date":"2013-01-11T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T00:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2493"},"modified":"2013-11-02T17:03:23","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T17:03:23","slug":"the-scoring-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/the-scoring-game\/","title":{"rendered":"The scoring game"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

I tried, I really tried but I'm afraid the cormorant was determined to force its way into this post. It helps that it understands the rules of the game (which is generally to be as silly as possible in front of the camera). This greylag obviously hasn't quite got the hang of how it works. The flight is good, the decision to turn in front of a backdrop of trees is excellent, but the timing is all wrong as the sun had yet to emerge above the Downs leaving me struggling with the gloom. A nice try though, but it probably scores no more than 4 out of 10.
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Much the same for this mallard. Lovely flight, low over the water. A beautiful pose with its head peeking out from behind the forward-thrown wing; but again too early. Where it beats the greylag is that by coming in low against a dark background it caused the camera shutter to slow dramatically and delivered some really nice motion blur. A really good effort Mr Duck, and worthy of a 7 out of 10.
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The cormorant is an old pro and, knowing full well that I'm trying hard not to take photos of it, pulled out all the stops. Indeed you might say that it leaned over backwards to impress. Another 7 out of 10.
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And to gild the lily, it even started pulling faces for the camera! This one gains an eight out of ten (a great idea, but points deducted for not facing the camera head on).
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Now for the promised video. taking a hint from Sami<\/a> I've re-positioned the camera to avoid having half the frame filled with sky.<\/p>\n