Asher,
yes, Swans are a pleasure to watch and thanks to parks and people respecting them in most cases there are actually several Swan couples having their nests in Munich.
Would you ever even consider removing a leaf or extra bird to fit in with such a series, or that would be streng verboten?.................. and anyone who asked would get a whack on the knuckles, LOL!
Let me answer our question first with a question:
What is more rewarding for you - sitting at the pond or walking around the pond watching the swans and using your skill and patience and with some luck getting the shot you imagine or taking a picture which almost got there and spending time in front of a screen moving pixels around to finally get what you imagined?
Individual answers may differ, but I think that mine is clear.
Another aspect:
Editing photographs was pretty popular during the Staling era for official photographs. A photograph which was at some point a true representation of the seen became a lie.
The power to edit, which has been given to everybody in the era of digital photography with the different software packages that exist, makes that people make sometimes extensive use of it. The result is a creation that does often not show a truthful representation the seen.
When you see a picture, can you be sure that the photographer has seen it happen this way? You can of course try to analyze the picture for edits. There are ways to find out, but there are also ways to avoid detection.
The photograph of the pair of Snow Geese added by Winston is good to illustrate this, btw. a great capture, I like it.
One could take a Snow Goose picture and create a similar, but more 'perfect' shot by copying, mirroring and pasting in another sky. This may look more appealing for some because it seems perfect. I prefer the real thing.
Best regards,
Michael