Eider

[William Dickson]

Canon 7D
CanonF/2.8 300mm with 2x TC
f/5.6
1/2000
ISO 640

processed in CS6

Captured at my local harbour, showing off in his breeding plumage

[dankearl]

This is much better than the first you posted.
You should get better IQ out of the equipment you use, maybe too large a crop?

[arash_hazeghi]

he is handsome. nice pose with good HA. the main issue here is the sidelight that has created the harsh shadows. getting lower will get you a better POV

well done

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image of beautiful bird. Rest is mentioned above.

Regards,
Satish.

[Grant Yang]

That's a very pretty and unusual species. I think one of the best things you can do to make your image stand out is to get lower. This will allow you to isolate your subjects much better.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Awkward light angle, slightly blown highlights, a subject certainly worthwhile pursuing, he is one of the most handsome I have seen. Did you focus on the head/eye? Easy for me to say here but was it possible to get lower and alter the angle to get the light behind you?

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the replies guys. Unfortunately I couldn't get lower, as the bird was swimming in the harbour, and I had to stand on the harbour wall

[Grace Scalzo]

I face the same challenge when photographing ducks off a jetty and the only I can suggest is to try and photograph them a bit further out to cut down on the angle a bit. I think your exposure was about as good as you could do with this light angle, but I would still try to open the black a bit and tone down the whites in your workflow. Lastly, I could see a vertical composition working well for this image, with more room at the top.

[Iain Barker]

Well done for capturing and Eider in the wild. I like the image overall and agree with the comments already made.