Lady Long-tailed Duck.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Rather uncommon here, and we only ever see them hundreds of yards out into the water, so when this lady hung out close to shore for most of the week (while I was at work of course) I knew where I would be first thing on that Saturday morning, rain or shine. She was there too, waiting for me ha ha. It was below freezing at this time, and then the night from Saturday to Sunday turned very cold, with the water turning to ice...so that was the last day for her until she moved back to further to still-open waters way out.

Canon R6 + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/320s., f/5.6, ISO 6400, natural light, handheld, slight crop after 1.5 degree image rotation, punched up contrast and saturation as light was very dull that morning. Topaz NR. Glad she at least swam in front of a more colourful far bank!

[James Babbitt]

Your perseverance paid off with a nice image. I love the "swimming into the light" with the beautiful light in the BG and L side.

[Andreas Liedmann]

HI Daniel ... love the super low POV shot , everything seems to be smooooth in FG and BG . Does look very nice overall .
I specially love the color variations in the BG .
Subject could stand more sharpening , from my POV .
Tones looking well processed

TFS Andreas

[Volkan Akgul]

Hi,

very good. detail is good. kind of fun to watch.
Congratulations.

[Dorian Anderson]

The blob of BG color really makes this frame; it would be too flat/monochromatic without it. Eye contact and low angle are great. Wide-ish comp works well. Nicely done.

[dankearl]

Very nice, love the low angle and nice BG color.