Hooded merganser

Gallery: AvianPosted January 31, 2012207 views9 comments

I shot this hooded merganser drake in a manmade pond in a highly developed area of Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. I think these guys are very striking looking ducks. I wish I had been able to get a little closer and I would like to have a better BG but I am pretty happy with the shot.

D300s with 200-400 and TC 14
1/2000 @ 5.6 ISO 640
HH at 53% of full frame.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on January 31, 2012 at 10:56 PM

Wow-Robert, great shot! These guys are really fast out of the water and you nailed this one. Love the full extension of the wings in flight and the water droplets falling off the duck-and the great detail. Excellent!

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by John Blumenkamp on February 1, 2012 at 1:59 AM

Amazing capture of this awesome looking bird Robert... congrats!

Registered on February 26, 2011, 58 Posts, 313 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on February 1, 2012 at 8:36 AM

A really difficult shot handled well Robert. Bird is sharp. I agree a more natural BG would have been nice, but this one is not bad at all. If I would do anything to this image I would bump up the mid-tones just a bit. Very well done.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on February 1, 2012 at 5:37 PM

A difficult shot - these are fast birds to catch and tough to expose properly. The larger version shows more noise than I expected in the background but nice detail in the merganser.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on February 2, 2012 at 11:05 AM

Much thanks to those of you who commented.

Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on February 2, 2012 at 10:12 PM

Great catch of these fast ducks! Nice wing position and colours on the duck. To me, the whole image seems a bit bright. I'd experiement with darkening the whole thing a bit, and allso with darkening the BG only.
Fine image!
Sandy

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

Comment posted by Steve Balke on February 18, 2012 at 8:18 PM

Fine capture, Robert. The bg looks acceptable to me and does not distract from the bird. I like that the image shows nice detail and the little bit of blur in the wing is just enough to add a nice sense of motion.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on June 5, 2012 at 12:10 PM

Very good stop action detail & wings up flight pose Robert, I like this..He's really bookin'!!

I agree with Ron, perhaps a slight mid-tone tweak would improve it.
Well done

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Patrick O'Healy on June 5, 2012 at 3:15 PM

Like it, very nice detail in the duck. Do you think expanding the canvas on the right would give him more space to fly into?

Registered on March 13, 2011, 326 Posts, 1679 Comments