Emerald Water

[SCraig]

LOL. What's up with ducks? Why do people take so many photos of them? Is there something I'm missing out on?

(new PBS program: the joy of photographing ducks)

Could be that you're missing something.

I don't know what it is, I just love to watch them. We get a LOT of ducks and geese through here in the winter, and while lots of people hunt them with a shotgun I have always preferred a camera. There are dozens of species, each with varying color schemes. Many species are not native to this area and migrate here during the winter. They will fly a thousand miles to spend the winter on the same lake each year, and then fly a thousand miles back to the same lake that they spend the summer on. They do this based purely on instinct, no maps or GPS, they just instinctively know where "Their" lakes are. I personally think that's pretty interesting and I like to photograph them.

Admittedly these are "Native" birds and were probably born on that lake and spend their entire lives there. I still enjoy watching them play and squabble though.

To each their own. I enjoy watching them, you don't. We'll both survive

 

[unpopular]

The truth is at photo.net I got a bunch of rude comments from a guy who had a single blurry photo of a duck swimming away from the camera. Now I'm jaded!

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One image I really wish I caught was this one neighborhood, very "nifty fifties", each house had it's duck or duck couple, each duck sitting next to the mailbox. They were like perfectly lined up, at first I thought they couldn't have been real. It would have made a funny parody on suburbia.

 

[SCraig]

The truth is at photo.net I got a bunch of rude comments from a guy who had a single blurry photo of a duck swimming away from the camera. Now I'm jaded!

I wouldn't recommend taking it out on the subject simply because the photographer was a prick. If I did that I wouldn't have anything left to photograph.

One image I really wish I caught was this one neighborhood, very "nifty fifties", each house had it's duck or duck couple, each duck sitting next to the mailbox. They were like perfectly lined up, at first I thought they couldn't have been real. It would have made a funny parody on suburbia.

I've seen them like that to but they were always plaster ducks. Kind of like back in the 50's where every house in the state of Florida seemed to have at least one pink plaster flamingo in the yard. That even spread far enough north that we had some of them here in Tennessee.

 

[unpopular]

Yeah, I know. I totally thought they were fake until they started moving away as we walked by.

 

[SCraig]

Yeah, I know. I totally thought they were fake until they started moving away as we walked by.

Perhaps they were paid by the USPS to guard the mailboxes. Or they were air mail delivery pilots.

 

[FireDiva]

Dispite the aglee issue, I find the emerald green beautiful......your shots are as wonderful....

 

[PixelRabbit]

Very nice shots, gorgeous colours!
I think the second one is the right composition, if you had the whole duck in it there would be way too much white and the beauty of the water falling would be lost.

 

[SCraig]

Thanks, both of you. I appreciate your comments.

I did get another shot of that white duck, with the whole duck in it this time, but he was just floating around and there as no water falling off of him. It shows that green water off pretty well though.

 

[FireDiva]

Look what the green lake offers in terms of the reflection....love reflections.

 

[SCraig]

Look what the green lake offers in terms of the reflection....love reflections.

The reflections were what actually what I noticed first when I got there. The duck was just floating around on that water that was just smooth as a mirror in places.

 

[HughGuessWho]

Nice set. Pics 1 & 3 are tied for my favorite. We get that Algae scum on most of our local ponds here as well.

Thanks, Joel. I don't like the crop on #2 but I didn't get the whole duck in the shot (stupid!) and a landscape crop looked worse.

Do you get the "Green Scum" this badly?

This is one of my walking spots but only in the spring, fall, and winter. In the spring I avoid it like the plague. This is a small pond beside the main lake but the main lake gets this bad as well.

We use to call that stuff "duck butter". LOL, don't even ask me why. They say it grows on top of the water when the oxygen level is low in the water.

I'm glad to see you were able to find a clear patch to get the 3 very nice shots.

 

[raygunboost]

I think iv'e seen the break one b4 nice job tho.