Northern Shoveler Stretch

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Another photo from Southern Cal (got a couple more lined up!). In the afternoon, this location didn't have great light for the birds in flight, so I found another location that allowed me to get low and shoot ducks (and avocets) in the evening light.

I'd never seen a shoveler stretch like this, so it was a treat to capture it. I'm not sure I could have picked a better background for this one. Thoughts?


Shooting Info:
Canon 5D3 | 500 f/4 II + 1.4x III
1/1000" | f/5.6 | ISO 800

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Killer stuff Miguel! One of the best low angle duck shots I've ever seen. Technically perfect. Awesome pose with a perfect head turn. BG colors to die for and perfectly composed.
Just love the ting of orange in the water.
One of your best imo.
Where was this photographed, if you don't mind me asking?

[Randy Stout]

Miguel:

Very beautiful and as you mentioned, a very unusual pose for a shoveler. The soft light works very well, slight head turn, all good.

I might try a version with the yellow bg toned down just a tiny bit, I think it would help the duck standout even more.

Looking forward to more of this series.

Cheers

Randy

[keith mitchell]

Miguel,Sidharth covered your excellent image ,Agree with his every word.

Keith.

[Glenn Conlan]

Could not be better!! It really paid off to get low. The colors are fantastic as well as the feather detail, looks like I need to get on my belly in the afternoon. Well done Miguel

[Bill Dix]

What a wonderful and unique Shoveler shot, Miguel. Pose, techs, detail, background, POV all superb. No reason to change anything. But if I were to apply my own personal nitpicking preferences, I might consider a slightly more pronounced pano with a little more room on the left and a little off the bottom. But I'd be more than thrilled to have this just as posted. A contest winner, if you did no cloning.

[Grace Scalzo]

Perfect, lovely pose, light, composition. Congratulations!

[gail bisson]

WOW!!
This is definitely contest worthy ( if you didn't clone anything out and I sooo...hope you didn't).
Absolutely wonderful.
POV -perfect
Light- perfect
IQ- perfect
Interesting action - yes!
I might ever so slightly desaturate the golden strip above the shoveler but otherwise this is IOTW and a definite contender for Avian IOTY!
Well done Miguel,
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Thanks for the comments guys! While there was no cloning, I did move the strip of golden yellow lower into the frame so that it would blend nicely in a 16:9 crop. Otherwise it's all global adjustments in LR and then sharpened in PS.

[Raybel Robles]

Beautiful image! full of nice colors! I love the background as it is!

[Frank Schauf]

Fantastic. Wonderful pose, colors and background.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic image Miguel!! Love all of it, wish it was mine! Thanks for disclosing the lowering of the top colour strip...

[Holger Leyrer]

Can not add any more to the comments. Beautiful in every way.

[Troy Lim]

Your images are getting better all the time. Love this, unique. BG is amazing.