Taking pictures of any subject, I strive to learn more about it. It helps me to better capture the true essence of the person or animal… the same could be said about objects or landscapes. In this case, I was reminded of a fact about ducks that I had forgotten: namely the filial imprinting phenomenon by which a young animal acquires characteristics from its parents and also becomes attached and follows them around when they are presented within a “critical period” after being born. I saw several videos on the internet in which ducklings followed their owners while walking, and the amazing BBC short documentary about Christian Moullec and his relationship with ducklings in which the birds swam and flew with him. It made me wonder what would happen if a competitive swimmer had a duckling for a pet. I was very fortunate that my friend Lauren was a competitive swimmer in her teen years, so we decided to try to capture her and the duckling swimming together.
