Common Goldeneye Drake

[Ross Taylor]

This photo was taken at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

My Canon EOS 7D mkII, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, and 1.4x III teleconverter were on a small beanbag on the ground. Settings were f/8, 1/750s, ISO 200, 560mm. Shot RAW and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Cropped to 65% frame width. Removed an odd glint from the eye, and reconstructed the pupil. Cloned out some spots in green background to even tonality. To the whole background, I applied NR and reduced contrast and saturation.

Critiques very much appreciated - Thanks for having a look :)

Ross

[gail bisson]

Lovely image with great POV.
I have never seen one with the white cheek area mottled with black. Must be coming into his breeding plumage?
Excellent IQ and lovely HA,
Gail

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks Gail :)

Sibley's shows a first winter bird as having a half white / half black cheek patch. I presume this fellow is going into his 2nd winter. I hope he makes it through it, my buddy Doug Griffith noticed it has a lame foot :(

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ross, lovely low angle here, and the light has brought out the green sheen on the head nicely. Well exposed on the whites too. Nice and sharp, and if anything, I would maybe take a bit off the bottom. :w3

[David Cowling]

I like this a lot. The low shooting angle and the light make a lovely image. I might go for a bit off the top to emphasise the low shooting angle.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice that it cooperated for you...no such luck for me this weekend (but the wigeons sure made up for that again!). Exposure, details, low angle all spot on. Just like Stu, I would be tempted to have a bit less canvas below. My favorite part is the windswept coif :-)

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Ross! I like the low angle, sharpness, pose and BG color. I too would take a little off the bottom.

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks everybody! I see a recurring theme, I need to take a little off the bottom before I post Lol.

I guess the bird seems a little far away, when the OOF foreground is the bottom third of the frame?

Ross