C&C - Duck

[tevo]

I'm particularly proud of this shot, simply because it took me an hour of hiding behind a palm tree to finally get close enough for this fella to see me and fly away, and I was able to capture it. It is also my first shot of wildlife that I am happy with! C&C is very much appreciated, as well as tips for shooting wildlife specifically water fowl and birds.

#1

Duck by theofficialtevo, on Flickr

 

[SCraig]

Well, you did finally get one, and a great shot at that. Just so you'll know it's a drake (male) Mallard. The hens are pretty much solid brown.

Personally I'd crop it a bit more for a couple of reasons:

First, it allows his eye to be more visible which, to me, is important since the eye is the first thing I tend to look for in people and animals.

Second, it shows a bit of motion blur in his right wing tip which makes it look less static, and also shows the water streaming off behind him.

Finally, it gets rid of some of the extraneous background that is just "There" and doesn't really add anything to the photograph.

Congratulations and well done. I does feel good when you finally capture one, doesn't it?

 

[Rick58]

Nice photo and good crop :thumbup:

 

[WesternGuy]

tevo, nice shot. Birds in Flight (BIFs) are my favourite. Scott, I like the crop.

tevo, if you are looking for some stuff on bird photography, check this one out - Bird Photography. As well, check out Art Morris' blog - Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART . He has also written a couple of books which you may want to check out. There is also this one on the web - Secrets of Digital Bird Photography. If you do a search on any book sellers site like Amazon, you will find a number of additional references. HTH.

WesternGuy

 

[tevo]

Well, you did finally get one, and a great shot at that. Just so you'll know it's a drake (male) Mallard. The hens are pretty much solid brown.

Personally I'd crop it a bit more for a couple of reasons:

First, it allows his eye to be more visible which, to me, is important since the eye is the first thing I tend to look for in people and animals.

Second, it shows a bit of motion blur in his right wing tip which makes it look less static, and also shows the water streaming off behind him.

Finally, it gets rid of some of the extraneous background that is just "There" and doesn't really add anything to the photograph.

Congratulations and well done. I does feel good when you finally capture one, doesn't it?

Normally I would have cropped more, but since I had already cropped so much I did not want to lose too much of it.

And yes, it feels excellent!

 

[SCraig]

Normally I would have cropped more, but since I had already cropped so much I did not want to lose too much of it.

And yes, it feels excellent!

Understood. I noticed that it was starting to get a bit fuzzy when I cropped it that much. I could probably had added some USM and gotten some sharpness back but I hadn't had my coffee yet