Fly by

[Grace Scalzo]

Thrilled to catch this pretty red breasted merganser (female) in flight.

f10, iso800, 1/2000
Canon 1Dx, 500 f4 _ 2.0 tc _ lowered tripod

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

Nice angle in frame, eye.

I might crop a bit tighter to show more detail at the small web size. Probably shows well at larger image size.

Interesting framing of the subject. I am not sure all the space on the right adds. If there were splashes or other things going on there, i would get it.

I really like tinkering with composition, so share with us your thoughts here.

Cheers

Randy

[Tim King]

Nicely caught at 1/2000. I like the placement of the bird here. Fine job.

[Jack Breakfast]

It behooves me to offer this gentle thought to any of the fine folks: the traditional aesthetic in "flight photography" is to leave space for the bird to fly into, but it is equally valid to leave space to show where the bird has already been. It's just as artistically pleasing, in my estimation. When I read this picture from left to right I see this: space/bird and reflection/waterline/space. What in the world could be wrong with that?

[dankearl]

I too, am puzzled by the comp.
Is "Fly By" to be taken literally?
It is a pleasing image and maybe getting us to think about it, is the point?

[David Salem]

Congrats on capturing this cool duck. Nice pose with the wings in a vee position. Techs look good too. If IQ holds up,I might crop it a bit tighter. Nice work.

[Doug West]

I agree with most of the others. This is just to centered for me. I would crop off the right,
add some to the left and crop some more off the bottom (removing the reflection all together).

Doug

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well focused and exposed, a good choice of shutter speed. I don't know how big the crop is already but I would consider crop a little more and move the bird further to the right in the frame.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Lovely exposure and capture. I really like the water reflection on the belly of the bird. I too would play with a crop that de-centers the bird a bit.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent pose and shooting angle, Grace. I'm not sure about the crop. The bird could be moved back and allow more space to fly in.

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

I have looked at your image several times, and it occurred to me that because we read from left to right, I was starting on th left side of the image, scanning to the bird, and stopping, so that the space on the right wasn't really a factor for me in telling the story. I flipped the image horizontally, and now it seems that it flows a bit better, the empty space on the left gives a sense of passage or progress.

I have posted the flipped version to see what others think.

Cheers

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

Randy, What an excellent idea. I posted my original just to get some feedback. I think that composing for flying ducks gets a bit routine (boring) and Jack summed up my thought perfectly in pane 4 above. But many don't care for this, so I'm open to rework. (It's not much of a crop, so lots of options). I like how the merganser is actually angling back slightly toward us, and I think that flipping this allows the eye to perhaps flow more in a way that we are used to , while retaining what Jack and I see. Thanks to everyone who commented, always fun to throw something different up on the forum and see how people react.

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image Grace, the exposure looks spot on and the action is nicely captured, i would have prefered a tighter crop as suggest by some of the other friends here
I do like the one Randy posted , as a preference i may have less behind the bird then in front just the way my eye still sees it

The special thing for me in the image is those small red eyes, you have nailed them so perfectly , love that

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace, tack sharp, with a good angled flight pose. I feel Randy has nailed the repost - good thinking Randy. :w3

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is the first time that flipping an image has made a difference for me...usually it does nothing but this one does!! Way to go Randy :-) I could also go with the flipped version but with about half the space below cropped away too. Always fun to have options!

[Bill Dix]

Well captured, Grace. Tough birds to catch in flight. I think Randy's on to something here, but I'd still add some flying room and take a bit off the back side, whatever side that is.

[Randy Stout]

I absolutely would do a bit more cropping of the image to play up the bird, but in my repost, wanted to highlight the difference that just flipping the image makes in how we 'read' the image, vs. obscuring that with other changes.

Cheers

Randy