Lesser Scaup in flight

[Isaac Grant]

I have so many waterfowl images that I have not posted I figure I may as well post some more. This adult male Lesser Scaup was photographed a few weeks back in late evening light. And just to speak of the amazing resolving power of the D850, this represents about 22% of the original frame. Meaning that I cropped away about 78%.

Nikon D850 and Nikon 500PF, ISO 1000, F7.1, SS 1.5000

[David Cowling]

Certainly is a beauty. I like the full downwing flight attitude, lovely feather detail and the very slight head turn. Background is nice too. TFS

[annmpacheco]

Spectacular , IQ and a big wow for the amazing 22% jammed with detail. Exposure superb, so very well done. Best I've seen Isaac.

[Dorian Anderson]

I hate you. So much better than the LESC flight shot I posted earlier this year. And that one was about the best I'd seen......

[John Mack]

Looks spot on. Nice pose nice light and a nice background. I can't get over how good this looks with the image being cropped so heavily.

[Isaac Grant]

Dorian that completely cracked me up. And I used your Lesser Scaup shot as motivation. Have to go out and beat that. I actually do that all the time. I view the photos from some of my favorite photographers of the species I am going to go shoot and see where the bar is. Then I try and match or beat it while out in the field. Of course the vast majority of the time I am unsuccessful at matching or besting but I always try. And I agree that your Lesser Scaup was as good as I had seen. So in a way you have yourself to blame :t3

[Isaac Grant]

John, I have said it a bunch lately, but the D850 has no equal right now. None. And I don't think any other camera is even close to as good when you have light like I had in this shot. I have hundreds of flight frames from this winter and just about every one of them has this type of image quality. Some even better. Sure I missed some here and there and most do not have the perfect wing position or head angle, but the quality of the files are to die for and unlike anything that I was ever able to get out of my 7d2, 1dx or 1dx2.

[kevin Hice]

Wow! spectacular as mentioned. I am impressed with the details and hard to believe that large a crop.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes that is rather impressive IQ for that type of aggressive crop! Makes it much easier to pan a fast flyer when you do not have to have it so close to you at time of capture. You still have to know what you are doing though, so kudos to you for the in-camera technique and tasteful processing.

[Isaac Grant]

That is exactly the thing Daniel. I easily could have had my 600 on the camera or the 600 and the converter as the bird was at a good distance for an 850mm shot and would have been a much smaller crop. But then again I would have had a much harder time staying on the bird or keeping it centered. The D850 is so good that there is no need to. Can just shoot farther away and crop and lose next to no details. And having just the 500 allowed me to be able to shoot birds that were closer as well and not have too much lens. I had that happen this year with my 600 and 1.4 attached where I had a Harlequin Duck fly by at eye level and in perfect light. Adult male and I had too much lens! Pissed me off and I missed the shot because of it. It was the only opportunity of the season to have an adult male fly by at eye level in late evening light. I was able to capture other images in this session within a few minutes of this photo where the birds were much closer and I would have had way too much lens with the 600 and converter. Or even just the 600 being that it is 5 pounds heavier would have made it way more difficult for me to stay on the birds. So this was a calculated choice to stay with just the 500 and be able to shoot birds at a wide variety of distances.

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool Issac, you nailed it. the D850 + 500 PF is indeed the best camera for these kind of shots given that it can cover both close and moderate distant shots and super easy to follow the bird with

TFS

[Chris van Rooyen]

Spectacular! 78% crop ?! The detail is beyond belief:eek3: I will have to take out that second bond on my house...