Hooded Mergansers Silhouette.

[Daniel Cadieux]

A young family of Hooded Mergansers has delighted many this year at a local park. There were 14 hatchlings at first (I missed those...too busy at that time), and they eventually dwindlwed down to 6 survivors. This is two of them sharing a favorite perch. Taken just as the sun was starting to peek over the trees. I knew the light angle would be wrong so early in the morning from the side of the pond, but there was access to position myself for silhouettes, so I concentrated on this technique first. The trick for success here with two subjects was to wait for two good head angles for good profiles...and I really wanted the two to face each other. It took a while, but patience paid off!

Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/8, ISO 800, handheld, oh and no eye doctoring here!!:bg3:

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Indeed - beautiful. The position of the 2 heads, i.e. the birds appear to be having a relaxing intimate moment, is great, as are the silhouette and the sky color. I also like that you can see the sky through the nostrils. Maybe remove the feather sticking out from the right hand bird?

Richard

Richard

[Jack Breakfast]

Nice one, Daniel. You are a romantic, I see...

[gail bisson]

very nice Daniel.
I like the displaced feather personally but otherwise agree with Richards' comments,
gail

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I really like this Daniel. I like that the light shows thru the bills, the birds positions and the stray feather on the right..

[Roger Clark]

Hi Daniel.

Wonderful image. I really like silhouettes, and having two subjects in apparent interaction really puts the image over the top. Well done.

Roger

[Shawn Zierman]

This rocks on many levels....emotional, aesthetic, etc.
Great to see a high quality silhouette not taken in Florida :)

[Satish Ranadive]

One of the best, beautiful images of silhouette I have seen so far.Love the interaction between two of them and the superb sky colors.
Regards.

[christopher galeski]

very nice Daniel,I like the feather sticking up,and whats that orange and yellowBG,is it the sun setting,a very rare sight here in the UK:w3.THANKS.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks all! The background is actually water, with the top "vignetting" the top of reflected trees.

[Ofer Levy]

This is really pretty! I love it!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:


A very simplified image (which is good) Strong colors, birds reduced to their most basic form/shape, good interaction.

Well done.

Cheers

Randy

[Rachel Hollander]

Daniel - your patience paid off big time. Gorgeous in all respects! I too like the stray feather.

TFS,
Rachel

[Melissa Groo]

Wonderful, Daniel, such a lovely atmospheric image, with a nice sense of interaction, and great comp and sharpness. My favorite part is the light coming through the nares.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Great shot, Daniel. loved the head positions, the color, the dark band at the top...the size in the frame...would not even think of touching a thing. You positioned yourself perfectly...awesome work.

[Giuseppe Varano]

Really an amazing silhouette and wonderful atmosphere.

[Markus Jais]

Fantastic shot. I really like the colors in the BG. The birds looking at each other makes this one special.

Markus

[Gloria Hopkins]

This is wonderful. Wish I had taken this :)