Northern Shoveler (Male)

Gallery: AvianPosted July 26, 2011537 views6 comments

Another waterfowl photographed in February, 2010 at a lake in the Phoenix Zoo. This image was taken with a Nikon D300 and Nikkor 300mm f/4 ED-IF AF-S with Nikon TC14EII teleconverter . Camera settings were 1/250s f/5.6 at 420.0mm iso200 aperture priority mode, but I think iso 800 and f/8 would have been a better choice. The image was slightly cropped on the right side.

Comments and critiques welcome.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on July 26, 2011 at 4:11 PM

Nice pose on this one. Wish for a lower angle and for it to be a bit brighter.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on July 26, 2011 at 5:56 PM

Very nice portrait ! Fine detail, bright eye, and interesting water. Since the rippled water was not going to produce a great reflection, a lower angle would have been good. I'd suggest brightening the head reflection only just a tad.
Well-done!
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Nichols on July 26, 2011 at 8:32 PM

Jay, I like how well your exposure shows the different shades of color in the duck's head. The texture in the water above the duck is also really nice. I would only prefer a little more room in front of the duck.

Registered on November 7, 2007, 161 Posts, 1420 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on July 26, 2011 at 9:32 PM

Hi Jay, the water is gorgeous, nice work getting the leg under the water surface to show so well. Love the look at the eye. A bit more room in front of the duck would be nice. Raising the midtones slightly would help to lighten the duck but wouldn't raise the whites, I'd suggest doing that rather than globally brightening the image or some of the whites will get blown.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on July 26, 2011 at 10:00 PM

This is very pretty. The water is gorgeous, such a smooth glassy look to it. I agree I'd probably like it a bit brighter. I don't mind the angle at all though, as with a lower angle, you might lose the reflection (or make it harder to fit in the frame).

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on July 26, 2011 at 11:54 PM

A lovely Shoveler shot; the completely wild ones are a lot less habituated to people and harder to approach. I'd wish for a lower angle (although it might mean less of the gorgeous water) and an adjustment of the mid-tones as Mia suggests.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments