Foggy Morning Mandarin...

[Joseph Przybyla]

The day dawned with a heavy fog. When it began to lift I headed for Lake Mirror. I captured this image with the fog in the background and the bird and Lotus leaves in light fog. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering +1 2/3 EV ISO 2000 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful image, Joe. I think the fog worked for your advantage.

[Arthur Morris]

Sweet. Is the lake near your home? Is that the real name of the lake? For me the shaggy stuff and the face could use a little selective sharpening via a Contrast Mask. a

[Joseph Przybyla]

Karl and Artie, thank you for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

Artie, Lake Mirror is in the center of Lakeland. The lake has a concrete walkway/promenade surrounding it (built under WPA in the thirties I think). On the west side of the lake about a block away are tall buildings that can provide pleasing reflections of color on the water. Impossible to get a really low angle so I kneel along a shallow concrete wall with the camera resting on the wall for support.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very colourful duck. I love the high key treatment. Good processing overall, I just think it needs a bit of CW rotation.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed I like the high key and the composition with those leaves really helps.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the angled pose, feather patterns, lily pads and high key effect. Very well done Joe!

[Bill Dix]

Spectacular duck, hi-key effect, lotus leaf all combine to make a very pleasing image. Judging by the reflection the rotation looks about right to me, although the ripples do create an illusion. Is this a deja-vu moment for me, or does this look familiar? Maybe you've posted another frame of him?

[Ross Taylor]

Hi Joe, Very nice high key of subtle blue. Agree with CW rotation. Other than that, you may consider to create a catchlight on the eye and it's reflection.

Love this shot, Joe!

Ross

[gail bisson]

Lovely high key shot! Have you posted this image before?
It looks level to me.
I am on the fence re: the lotus leaves. I wish the one in front of the duck was either more defined and clear or gone.
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

Bill and Gail, you are both correct I have posted this before. I dug it out of the archives, tweaked it and posted it for this month's theme.

[Arthur Morris]

Spectacular duck, hi-key effect, lotus leaf all combine to make a very pleasing image. Judging by the reflection the rotation looks about right to me, although the ripples do create an illusion. Is this a deja-vu moment for me, or does this look familiar? Maybe you've posted another frame of him?

Hi Bill, The image does need some CCW rotation. It is easy to draw a line with the Ruler tool from a spot on the bird to the corresponding spot on the reflection. in this case I used the corner of the eye. Then hit Image/Rotate/Arbitrary and then OK. The basics can be seen below.

I have personal keyboard shortcuts for the Ruler Tool and for Image/Rotate/Arbitrary so the whole thing takes me 5 seconds at most. You can find those shortcuts plus tons more including my complete digital workflow (pre-DPP 4) in my Digital Basics File. (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252)