Common Merganser in flight with flounder

[gail bisson]

I had a great afternoon with my feathered buddies. I think I have spent about 16 hours with them over the past 2 weeks.
The ice is receding and the open water is expanding and soon they will be too far away to photograph.
The mergansers were very jittery today. Every time a car drove by, they flew off, which is not the norm. I sense they are getting ready for mating season and the hormones are starting to run high.
This merganser caught his flounder and flew off with it. First time I have seen this happen.
Canon 1DX F 600mm II and 1.4X III
ISO 800
F 9 @ 1/3200 at ~ 4:00PM.
PP: Crop to 65% FF, levels, DE at 6% on head and fish and 3% on rest of duck, USM to JPEG.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Satish Ranadive]

Gail, your handsome Merganser looks like very shy one...hiding his face behind the fish a good thing is his eye is seen very clear.( He must be taking it as a gift to his mate!!!)
Beautiful flight pose.superb wing position,nice colors. I love the wat bird pops up against dark BG.If mine I will crop blues at top.

Regards,
Satish.

[Karl Egressy]

Wow, this is truly amazing, Gail. Everything looks great. Even the fish lined up nicely to show an nice side view. Shooting angle was perfect so was the down forward wing position.
The background is very sweet as well.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Gail, great shot here with sharpness and perfect exposure. The background is a bit dark and dominant, not sure if you have any options or shooting angle here. That is a big fish that he caught! TFS. Loi

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Gail,

You must have been besides yourself when you saw this happen and were able to capture it. I sure would have. I'm not sure you could have positioned anything better than it already is ...
- The flounder is oriented in the more pleasing the direction (the other side is all white and not as attractive, IMO).
- You somehow managed to capture most of the eye (with a nice catchlight!), even with the big fish.
- The wingtips are flared out, and the bird is at a nice angle relative to you.
- The merganser is positioned very nicely with the background, with no intersecting lines from the sky or snow.

I mean, I'd take this one and print it!

Miguel

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

The birds eye showing is a critical component here, and helps all the other fine details work well. Miguel summarized the good points well.

The only minor thing I might try would be to very slightly tone down the luminosity and contrast of the sky, so that the contrast between the trees and sky is a bit softer, less eye catching. The layered blue is great, but I want to keep the eyes primary focus on the bird/fish combo.

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

Clearly, another IOTW for you, excellent techs and one of kind fish catch photo.
I also could see a 16X9 crop eliminating the sky above.

[William Dickson]

Amazing. Really love this and the wee bit of the eye showing says a lot :S3:

[John Stuelpnagel]

This is an awesome shot Gail. The fish and the eyes really make the image special. I might try a little tighter crop or wide-angle crop to see if cutting down on the blues make the image even better.

[Bill Dix]

What an amazing, unique capture. I can imagine your glee. Love that the merg's eye is showing, and the bird positioned nicely in the layered bg. I wouldn't do a thing to it except frame it.

[gail bisson]

Thank you very much for your comments.
I have changed the crop to a 16 x 9 and decreased the contrast and brightened where the sky meets the trees.
WDYT?
PS Randy- How would you decrease luminosity? I know how to use luminosity masks to increase contrast and color but not how to decrease them. I went to LR and with the gradient tool reduced contrast and exposure. Is there a better way?

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hello Gail, wonderful image. Not sure if this is what Randy had in mind but in Lightroom under HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) the luminance of a color can be brightened of darkened there.

[Iain Barker]

Amazing picture Gail. The fish certainly make you stop and wonder what is going on.
IQ is great as always. I like both crops but the repost does bring the focus to the bird more.

TFS
Iain

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Killer pose, spot on exposure and great bg. There are so many things I'm thoroughly enjoying here - the interesting held fish, the eye just showing, bird placed perfectly in the bg strip, the two orange feet showing, and especially that there are no visible shadows what so ever.
Awesome stuff Gail. Wonder how the duck is holding on to the fish - do they stab the prey with those serrated beaks?

[Randall Farhy]

Top shot Gail, just wow! Can't add anything that hasn't already been said, it's good to see all your effort and patience pay off with this one. I like the pano, but I would slide the bird a little higher in the frame-maybe keep just a little sky above the head and to the rear, but allow more room on the bottom? -R

[christopher galeski]

its all been said,unique,love the BG,well caught,and I don't mean the merganser:S3:.

[arash_hazeghi]

very interesting! I like the special food item! I like the original crop

[Grant Yang]

Excellent shot. It looks like he's just got the fish plastered to the face, since you can't see how he's holding on to it.

[Bradley James]

This is such a great image. Tack sharp, great subject and unique with the fish like that. I personally liked the first image you posed. The second is to pano like for me. Keep up the amazing work

[Tim King]

Love the 3-tiered BG. You've highlighted the bird very well. Fine job.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, a little late to the party. I didnt know what a flounder was until I opened your image. Great that it didnt obscure the eye of the duck. Excellent flying posture, love the detail and colours, and I like that you managed to capture him against the colours of the distant BG. I feel the placement is perfecto. Well captured.

[gail bisson]

Thank you all for your comments and critiques.
Sid- I am not sure how he is holding on to the fish. He must have pinched a bit of skin between his mandibles. Usually they hold the flounder horizontally between the bill and then flip it up and swallow it whole.

[Rob Melone]

It's a wonderfully, fun and exciting moment in nature Gail that you captured so well. Perfect exposure, light, wing position (with curled tips), clarity, and that eye and fresh catch! I've never seen it's equal!

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Gail! I like the original post the best.