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Wood duck drake
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Wood duck drake

by Robert Bunch

Gallery: AvianPosted March 24, 201090 views6 comments
I photographed this wood duck, which is one of my favorite birds, at White Rock lake park in Dallas. It is a large, very nice urban park with lots of birds and smaller mammals. In case you're wondering about the crop I decided that since he was moving toward me AND to my right I would leave him room both to the right and in the front (or in this case bottom of the frame) to move into. I got as low an angle as possible without lying in bird crap and mud to get the shot. It was late and the sun was sinking rapidly and my camera meter does not work with my old lens so I was kind of guessing at the exp so the shot was bit underexposed. This is 47% of FF.

D200 w/nikkor MF 300/2.8 and TC 14 with monopod

1/400 @ f4 ISO 400

Thanks for any comments and criticism.

Comments

6 comments
Comment posted by Robert Bunch on March 24, 2010 at 8:17 PM
Rich,

I never run NR cause I don't have any. Some day I will get it. I was a newspaper photographer so I'm used to the "grainy" look. :smile:
Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments
Comment posted by Jeff Loomis on March 24, 2010 at 11:00 PM
Its easy to see why we love Wood Ducks so much. Maybe a little grainy as mentioned, but still a great shot. Nice and sharp where it matters and catch light in the eye. Nice.
Registered on January 26, 2010, 68 Posts, 719 Comments
Comment posted by silvio scamperle on March 25, 2010 at 1:17 AM
i look the rumors is the hight iso or crop?
Registered on October 2, 2009, 28 Posts, 15 Comments
Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 25, 2010 at 7:57 AM
Robert, a nice shot of this woodie. I really like the grey water. Very different IMO. In general 47% crop is not too bad. Beside the noise, which is a bit more than I like to see, I believe the only other thing I would change on this if it were mine would be to rotate the image a bit CCW.
Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments
Comment posted by Monica Siri on March 25, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Robert,
very nice pose, low angle and comp. I agree with others about noise but overall this is a lovely image.
Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments
Comment posted by Erik Van de Water on March 26, 2010 at 4:04 PM
Great job getting down to eye level with the bird. The grain is the largest issue with the photo.
Registered on February 27, 2010, 6 Posts, 72 Comments