Gadwall, female

[Tim King]

Took this in April of 2011 early in the morning as the sun found its way through the narrow woodlot behind me.
127229
50d - 300mmf4 L IS + 1.4TCii
full camo, lying on bank - 5 hunting decoys for company ; )


Spring!!

[vishaljadhav]

Nice one, the low perspective makes it really stand out, the open beak adds a lot of interest
Sharp and well composed image

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Tim,

Wonderful shot! Love the low perspective. Any lower and you run the rist of having the dark horizontal going through the body.

If you can, I would lighten that horizon. An easy way to do it is to get a soft brush at 10% (or less) opacity and paint over the dark spots with a lighter color (on a separate layer).

Also, just noticed, but what's going on above the beak? Looks like a little chunk is missin? I've never seen that before.

Miguel

[Randy Stout]

Tim:

Good comments from the guys. I thought about softening the horizon line as well, before reading Miguel's comment. Must a bit.

I find the image a bit bright, so perhaps a luminosity layer to tone it down just a bit.

Did the decoys help? Any duck calls used to compliment them?

Cheers

Randy

[Tim King]

Tim:

Good comments from the guys. I thought about softening the horizon line as well, before reading Miguel's comment. Must a bit.

I find the image a bit bright, so perhaps a luminosity layer to tone it down just a bit.

Did the decoys help? Any duck calls used to compliment them?

Cheers

Randy

I did have my mallard call on me and it does work, but I`m not sure if I used it for this photo. The decoys work amazingly.


Miguel:

I think the females have a bit of an indent above their bill and is more accentuated when calling.
I haven`t seen many photos of them calling but the ones I have seen they do have the indent.
I like the BG as is. It looks natural to me as I remember it.

Thanks all.

[PhilCook]

Love the simplicity and coppery tones and sheen to the entire image, lighting is beautiful, open bill is a nice touch.....very nicely done all round

[Mike Veltri]

Very nice Tim, nice low level approach and calling pose.