Lesser Scaup

[John Mack]

Baited. This image was created at the infamous wall of shame on Oakley St. in Cambridge, Maryland on 2/8/20 at 2:33PM. Image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hand held, Small crop.

Canon 5D MarkIII
Canon 500 f/4 IS USM
ISO 400
f5.6
1/3200sec

[David Roach]

Another beauty, my friend. Just the right DOF for my taste. TFS

[gail bisson]

Please, please explain the wall of shame? Daniel and I are wondering.
Lovely low POV and that blue, calm water is killer.
Whites look great and nice body and head angle.
Nothing to be ashamed about with this!
Gail

[John Mack]

Please, please explain the wall of shame? Daniel and I are wondering.


Will do. Oakley Street in Cambridge, Maryland is a dead end street that ends on the Choptank river. There is a small concrete wall there. That's the wall of shame. The upper part of the Chesapeke bay is at the mouth of the river. Large amounts of waterfowl winter there. The locals have been feeding the waterfowl corn for the last couple decades maybe even longer. The birds are down right tame. I sat in the water and had canvas backs and scaups literally at my feet. It is mostly canvasbacks and lesser and greater scaup. There were some mallards and wigeon mixed in and a couple red heads here and there. I would highly recomend this place for canvasbacks. The biggest problem you will have is isolating single birds. I counted seven different people pull up and feed the ducks corn before noon the first day i was here. Check out this epidose of wild photo adventures to get a better understanding. Skip to around the 14:00 min mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSTK7-KgjXE

[gail bisson]

Thanks for the explanation John. I would not consider feeding corn to ducks shameful at all! To me, it is like feeding seed in bird feeders. Looks like a hard place to shoot but if conditions are good, you can get some awesome images (as you did!) Getting low in the water is the only way to go IMHO!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi John, lovely image of a scaup. Low POV, wonderful colored water for a background, sharp details on the bird. I wonder if this is not a Greater Scaup, more white on the sides and I see faint green iridescence on the head. Thank you for sharing.

[Ivan Sjogren]

Beautiful, beautiful shot John!
I watched the youtube video, looks like a beautiful place. What a treat to have diving ducks that close!
This one is nicely exposed, got a lovely low shooting angle and a great pose. No nits for me except that I still think you can shot with some more DOF to get the whole bird sharp.

PS. Definenately a Lesser Scaup with that head-shape and bill pattern.

[Jonathan Ashton]

You nailed it John, that's a super shot, great detail and I really like the colours.
Looked at the video too!

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Nice colors and low point of view. I saw the video that is an interesting place to check out.

TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

a classic low angle frame with all the elements that go with it executed well, I wish the tail was more in focus but that's all

TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Hi John, another killer image from you, and the low perspective works well. Excellent exposure and sharpness.

[Dorian Anderson]

Another super image! The bird looks so curious and cute! I am going to need to visit this place when I visit my family in Philadelphia!