Wood Ducklings

ShaneKPhotography · May 23, 2011

I ran across a momma wood duck today with 7 babies. Unfortunately I couldn't get any closer and didn't have a longer lens on me so these are heavy crops.

05-22-11 Wood Duck Ducklings 2 by ShaneK Photography, on Flickr

05-22-11 Wood Duck Ducklings 1 by ShaneK Photography, on Flickr

STM · May 23, 2011

Those ducklings are adorable!

The composition in the bottom image is much better. They ducks are aligned on a horizontal third and the dominant duck, the mother, is not in the center of the frame. I would suggest you re-crop the first image, cropping out more foreground until those ducks are also on the lower horizontal third.

Just a suggestion, I never go anywhere without a 2x, 4x and 8x neutral density filter in my camera bag. Use them when outside to allow you to open up the lens for less depth of field. Sharp backgrounds, especially in nature photography, are distracting. Successful nature photography is all about isolating the subject enough that your eyes focus on it, but not too much, that you lose a sense of place or location.