Pic Post: The Swans of Lake Balaton

Here in Hungary, these lovely birds have become my photographic muse.

Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments.

—Michael Gira

One of the unexpected joys of becoming a digital nomad has been discovering how much I love photography.

And one of the unexpected joys of photography has been how it’s put me more in touch with the places we visit. I feel like a camera can help you really see things — even if Brent doesn’t necessarily agree.

Since I take pictures almost every day, I quickly develop a sense of each location’s rhythm and moods, and I even get to watch things change over the weeks and — if we stay long enough — months.

In Vietnam, I got to watch an entire rice crop be planted, grow, and be harvested. In Bansko, Bulgaria, I watched summer give way to fall.

In each place, there’s usually one particular thing that captures my eye. In Puerto Vallarta, it was the city’s vibrant street art. In Istanbul, it was the fact that the city is brimming with stray cats.

And here in Keszthely, Hungary, on Lake Balaton, there’s been an elegant flock of swans.

However beautiful the swans might be, I can attest to the veracity of the above quote — swans do have very nasty tempers.

But they are still beautiful and very photogenic, and I have taken a few hundred photos of them so far.

Here are a few of the best ( IMHO!).

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