Dinner for two

[gail bisson]

Common Mergansers and fish.
These 2 look like they are "together" but in reality the front duck has just grabbed the fish from the rear duck.
Canon 1DX 60mm and 1.4 x
ISO 800 SS 1/3200 F 6.3
PP: Crop to 70% FF, processed this one in DPP ( because of the big dynamic range with the whites and the blacks),levels and DE and USM to JPEG. I exposed this image for the whites and had to bring up the blacks by increasing shadows to +2.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail
PS. I want to remind everybody that I am not commenting on any of the theme images this month because I am the judge. I don't want anyone to feel slighted when I skip over their image!
On April 1 I will look at all the images for the first time with a fresh and unbiased eye (as I will not read any comments posted by others).

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Well done on the whites, fish adds lots of interest. Like the diagonal created by the line of the heads, nice head angles.

I might be tempted to crop in a bit more left and top, personal taste really.

I didn't know these guys did ice fishing!

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

It's nice to see that the snow has details. Composition is good, and the interaction with the fish is a great story.
This is the best time of the year to see them out of the water. Great image, Gail.

[mohammad reza shahab]

Hi gail,
Excellent details,Composition and nice head angles.

[Grace Scalzo]

You must have been thrilled to capture this. Great action! Never have seen these on land before. Did they land in front of you with the fish ? Would love to hear the story. Well done Gail, yet again.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I love the detail & clarity Gail! You were fortunate to see them at this particular moment - well captured!

[Norm Dulak]

Very nice Gail!! And I really appreciate your exposure strategy and PP details.

But your title does not quite square with your description. It seems that it was really dinner for one! :S3:

[David Cowling]

A bit out of my league to comment on this Gail, but I love it. The light reflected back from the snow has lit the underside of the birds beautifully. Good to see detail in the snow, the only thing I may say is that it seems to have a slight blue cast on my monitor. The snow that is, the white on the birds is perfect.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image Gail, love the colors of the birds and the behavior you image shows. Thank you for sharing.

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific image with lots of visual impact and interest. Would crop just a tad from the left.

[steve torna]

Two birds, prey, behavior, context, color, quality; awesome

[Shawn Zierman]

Great "fun" image....you did exceptionally well with the exposure....nice sharp details...even the striations in the bill of the merg with the fish look great....The underside of the front merg has quite a peachy look about it that I'm not used to, but frankly I've never seen this species out of the water on top of snow....Please make no apologies for not commenting on images....! You have like a 14 posts to 1 thread ratio going on....that speaks for itself!