Mating Barrow's Goldeneyes

[Geoff Newhouse]

I found this pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes on a small lake. I only saw them mate once and managed a few shots.
I would consider this to be low but not super low so I hope it is low enough to be in the theme.
This is a substantial crop and I wish I had the 600 out with me that day. Regular processing with Sat, contrast, shadows and highlights.
Shot handheld with Canon 1DX2 and Canon 400DOII + 2xTCIII. 800mm f/11 1/3200 ISO 1600

[John Mack]

Nice you caught the mating. Nice low angle good composition. Wish there was more room on the left.

[Isaac Grant]

Action is great here Geoff with the pose and the biting male. I agree with John about being more room on the left edge as the tail is too close to the edge of the frame. Perhaps loosening the crop would help because image quality has taken a pretty big hit here. The blacks of the head are mostly washed out and I don't see much fine feather details there at all. The black part on the flanks is blocked and the dark area on the back has very little detail and is also noisy. Also the whites of the bird have a strong blue cast and the area on the neck looks hot. The background is quite noisy and would benefit from noise reduction as well. I would revisit this one to see if you could address those issues.

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool behavioral capture, the shooting angle is very good and both are in focus, whites are nicely exposed too. I agree With Issac that the IQ is a bit lacking here, I see noise and I also see the blue cast. Was this a large crop?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Geoff I think you have a good image but the crop is too large and also I think it would present so much better at 1200 -1600px max.

[gail bisson]

I wish you had the 600mm with you as well!
Excellent behavioral image but I must agree with others about the IQ.
Gail
PS Congrats on your fine eagle shot win in Nature's Best!

[Bill Dix]

Great behavior image. Good comments above. I agree it needs a looser crop, especially on the left. Subject is so good that it's worth revisiting, with attention to Isaac's suggestions.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Unfortunately, the quality suffered a bit due to that crop.
Nice moment though! :)
TFS.

[Geoff Newhouse]

Thanks for the comments. I tried to lighten the head feathers and shift the blue cast out of the whites. As I mentioned in the OP the crop is a lot so I've included the full frame so you can see just how much. I don't think I can salvage any more detail out of it with this few pixels. For me it is just a behavioural image I probably will never get again not living up north anymore.
I needed 1200mm and a good high pixel density body wouldn't have hurt either!!

[Geoff Newhouse]

I wish you had the 600mm with you as well!
Excellent behavioral image but I must agree with others about the IQ.
Gail
PS Congrats on your fine eagle shot win in Nature's Best!

Thanks Gail. It was an honour to place in that contest. One of those images where behaviour trumps quality and aesthetics!!