Wood Duck Hen.

[dankearl]

The wild ducks have left my local pond for the season, I took this today,
I guess I am stuck with these gals ;).

1/2500, f6.3, iso1000, 600mm (300 w/ 2x), D800, HH

DSC_4979bp.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=125672&stc=1&d=1362878496)

[Don Lacy]

Lovely colors, great HA, and low perspective not much more you could ask for, well done

[PhilCook]

Lovely light in this, very good HA and sharp all over...I do really love the honey like texture of the water, not sure about the different colored vertical band though

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Being stuck with these is a nice problem to have! Very nice light, eye contact and love the water color and texture. Lovely exposure too. Very nice!

[Tim King]

The beautiful water and excellent pose makes this a perfect photo. Fine job once again.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent HA, nice looking water and nice pose, Dan.

[Grace Scalzo]

Wonderful. You captured the beautiful colors of her head perfectly. Do you have a smidge more at the bottom ?

[Gen Benjamin]

Lovely image of a lovely bird. Love the colors in the bird and the water and I especially love the reflection. I agree with Grace that if you have it a bit more room on the bottom would be nice.
Gen

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wow Dan the IQ here is over the top! Details, colours, water texture all top notch. I do wish for a bit more room at bottom as the reflection is rather close to the edge. Some species to be "stuck" with!! :-)

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot Dan!
Wonderful soft light, great pose, excellent feather details, and great comp.
Very well done.

[gail bisson]

Love the water and that perfect head turn. Love the iridescence in the feathers.
Don't you know-girls rule!!

[jack williamson]

Excellent detail and exposure was right on. The water color and texture are beautiful.

[David Salem]

Very nice. I just sat at a pond a few days ago shooting wood ducks and got some nice ones but not sure if I got one this nice. It has it all. Great feather detail, killer exposure, perfect HA and beautiful creamy water. Very nice.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is sweet Dan! love the pose and details, nice tones in the BG!

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice. Love the reflection!

[Shawn Zierman]

Excellent image. Quality reflection. The light angle and quality really illuminated
some great color and sheen on this hen. More room on the bottom and it would
be perfect imo. Definitely one of the more ornate female North American duck
species...

[Don Nelson]

Great IQ on this image. Nice placement of the dark reflection through the bird.
Enjoy them while you can -- they'll be following the males shortly up into the streams in the Cascades.
And you should know that this summer they will be terra-forming Westmoreland into a streamside environment. The lake will be history next year.....

[dankearl]

Thanks for all the comments.
Don, that is too bad about Westmoreland, I took this one at Crystal Springs.
The Wood ducks (male and female), stay there year around.
You get really nice water there although the light is pretty tricky.
I took probably 50 shots of Wood ducks on Saturday and only kept this one!

[mohammad reza shahab]

Excellent detail and pose. exposure,The water color and texture are beautiful.