Theme: Green winged Teal

[Grace Scalzo]

Here is one of a growing group of Green winged Teals that seem to be making one of our local ponds home for the winter. They are not common here so this is a treat. The pond has steep banks and wading in it is not allowed, so I've been taking a higher approach and trying for pretty water patterns and reflections. In this image, I liked how the trees are bent by his bow wake.

1/640,iso800, f8
Canon 1dx, 600f4 + 2.0 tc + tripod

[stuart wanuck]

lovely colors and bg

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Strikingly beautiful, Grace. The light in the image is so pleasing. It accentuates the highlights both on the duck and remarkable water brilliantly. As beautiful as the bird is, I keep looking at the complimentary water patterns as well.




Geoffrey

[Bill Dix]

Hi Grace. I love these little ducks, and I love the earthy color palette in this frame. There are definitely times when a higher POV is helpful, even if forced upon us. The bird feels a little too centered for me, but I can understand that you wanted to maximize the beautiful water patterns on the left. That was probably the right decision. I might be tempted to apply just a bit of dodging around the swoosh and back of the head. And it appears that you may have deleted a second catchlight in the bird but not in the reflection. All that said, this is a wonderful image, that looks like it should be on the cover of Field and Stream (oops, it's not vertical).

[David Cowling]

What a beauty! Both bird and image. Lovely detail on the bird and the water colour is superb. Agree with Bill on the centralised duck, but I think that the patterns of the water will let you get away with that.

[keith mitchell]

Grace it is right up my street, beautiful work an inspiration to us all.

Keith.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace, very well exposed on the Teal, love the colours on the head, and the colours of the water compliment the Teal nicely. Interesting texture to the water below the duck - it looks like swishes from a paint brush - very neat.

[William Dickson]

Those waters Wow :S3: Beautiful colours throughout. Lovely detail on the bird and I like the comp. Cool pic Grace :S3:

Will

[David Salem]

This is one of my favorite species of ducks to shoot. They are just is pretty on the water as in the air. Nice pose and details and I sure like the watercolor. Nice comp and reflection too. Great job as always Grace.

[Grace Scalzo]

Bill, you have such a keen eye. I looked at my larger file and the eye indeed has two catchlights. I fixed that in both the body and reflection. Then I used the Macphun filter Intensify Pro to open the green head more. Small details but they made a nice improvement...thanks for your suggestions.

Thanks to those of you who commented, glad that you liked it.

[Jim Crosswell]

A real beauty Grace! I like the pose, IQ, reflection and that water is sweet!

[Glenn Conlan]

Love the colors Grace very moody capture

[Marina Scarr]

What a super frame esp with that particular bird against the brown/golden BG. The RP is quite an improvement esp in the green head.

[annmpacheco]

Congrats to you for December theme, this is a so deserved sweet image!

[dennis greenwood]

Well deserved .lovely image