Baby Talk

Almost every day for two weeks in May I hiked the Island Trail at Ludington State Park, hoping to see newborn swan cygnets appear in this nest. I had envisioned making a photograph with several cygnets and one or both parents for this book. Instead of the picture I had pre-visualized, I was finally rewarded on May 17 with a simpler, more unique shot. A lone first-hatched cygnet crawled out of the nest and waddled precariously around the top edge until coming face to face with its mother. I tripped the shutter at the instant world-famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson liked to call "the decisive moment."