Common Goldeneye Drake

[Anthony Barsotti]

This shot is from a few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me a heads up that at a nearby park he'd spotted a nice Common Goldeneye Drake. In Baltimore these guys are pretty rare and since the park is frequented by people walking dogs, runners, etc I knew he wouldn't stick around long. I got to the park at sunrise and found him mingling with some Ring Necked Ducks and Mallards, managed to get a few close looks before children and people with their dogs started walking around the pond and eventually flushed the duck (never saw it again). Shot with my Canon 1DX and 600mm f/4 IS II with the 1.4X Extender III at ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/800sec. Slight cropping for composition, boosting shadows, etc.

[David Roach]

Even though swimming away, HA is spot on. Exp also spot on. I'd lose the top dark stripe with bright center. TFS

[Mike Poole]

As David says, the turn of the head is the key to this frame, nice low position and well presented - not easy with the whites these guys have

Mike

[William Dickson]

Lovely POV and not a bad look at this difficult to expose duck. I just wish it wasn't swimming away from us.

Will

[John Mack]

The low angle is great. Nice look back from the bird. Light looks nice.

[Daniel Cadieux]

These guys are rather flighty (I got lucky with the image directly below yours). I too wish it was not swimming away, but at least it gave you a good head turn. Good light. I do find the top of the frame distracting. Great low angle. A pretty good image of a rare bird for you, so congrats. I can relate about the people/dogs/runners/etc...going to city parks is a race against people waking up lol!

[Isaac Grant]

I use the following criteria to determine if I have a keeper of a shot for waterfowl images. Do you have a nice low angle? Yes you do. Do you have a nice background? Well sort of. You need to crop out the dark and peach stuff on top as it is very distracting. Also you have quite a bit of noise in the background that needs to be dealt with. I use Neat Image. Do you have proper exposure on the bird? In your case you do not. The whites are over blown and without details and the blacks are mostly blocked. Head looks the best. Do you have a good head/body angle or good behavior? Here you do not. The bird is facing ever so slightly away and the body is angled away. If you have all the rest, now do you have good image quality? I do not think you do because of the exposure issues and the lack of fine feather details. For the reasons above I think the shot is a delete. Good to get a shot of a hard bird, but you could do better given a bit more time and a more cooperative bird. All the more reason to go back out and try again.



Sorry but for me this is a delete.

[Anthony Barsotti]

Thanks for the feedback Isaac! I think with a bit more editing the highlights and noise could be taken care of (I underexposed this by about a stop to make sure the highlights weren’t blown so they probably got hot in post). Given your other points though that may not be worthwhile. I think the light that day was far from ideal, shooting this guy in direct sunlight was very tricky.

[Isaac Grant]

Full overcast is easiest. Early morning or late evening is best. And you need the bird to have the bird lined up directly on the sun angle and have the bird fully parallel to the back of your camera. So difficult I know but that’s the only way to get great details in the whites and blacks. Check out the Lesser Scaup I posted maybe 20 posts down or so. Conditions were exactly how I described. When the bird was a inch off the sun the exposure and details suffered dramatically. Meaning I have loads of shots where things were almost right. Just that one out of that series where it lined up perfectly. Birds are really hard! Just have to keep at it and keep that in mind when in the field so you can get it right in the camera and not have to underexpose. Thats when the files are magical.

[Dorian Anderson]

This is a nice but not outstanding frame. The shooting angle and foreground are dynamite, but the bird's angle away from us are not ideal. Exposure on these is tough as others have noted. YOu just gotta take a lot of frames to get the perfect balance of absorption and reflection in the blacks and whites, respectivey.