Walking on Water

[Tom Walter]

This Hooded Merganser pair was beginning its flight from our subdivision lake in Crest Hill, IL, 30 miles southwest of Chicago. Divers are hard to photograph because they tend to be in the middle of the lake, often too far away for a good shot. I patiently waited until this pair swam to the narrow part of the lake which minimized the distance to the mergansers. Your comment are welcome.

NikonD7000<o:p></o:p>
Nikon 70-300 4.5-5.6G VR<o:p></o:p>
1/1600sec at f/6.3 and 300mm<o:p></o:p>
ISO400<o:p></o:p>
Handheld
Lightly cropped

[Joel Eade]

Nice behavior captured here, I think the detail on the birds suffers from distance and maybe not enough shutter speed for such fast action. I would take a look at cropping the lake bank off the top and maybe a little off the bottom too. More of a pano type image would make it stronger I think.

[arash_hazeghi]

the action was nice, I like the water drops. The IQ is lacking unfortunately, with the hind bird OOF and I find the shoreline distracting

TFS