Harlequin Duck

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I'm going through some files from earlier this year. I photographed this harlequin on Cape Ann in January.

1D3, 500f4, 1.4x, 1/2000s, f/8, EC -0.67, ISO 400

[Paul Marcellini]

What a beautiful bird. I like the blue/gold combo of the water. Everything looks great as far as sharpness/comp. I like the slight angle of the body toward the camera. If anything, maybe bring up exposure on the eye.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Great Bird Axel, great pose and composition with great detail and color

[Tony House]

Superb looking bird, no nits from me...

Nice work.
Tony

[bill kominsky]

As usual Axel there will be no nits from me my friend. I think this bird is stunning and the job you did is also stunning, thank you for sharing this beauty.

Bill

[Doug Brown]

Super job with an exposure nightmare. Beautiful specimen of a bird with nice sharpness. I really like the water color and the waves give it a 3D quality.

[Steve Maxson]

Beautiful, Axel. Great colors and sharpness, a nice pose, and the colors and textures of the water really add interest to the image.

[Grace Scalzo]

Just wonderful work here, Axel. Beautiful water and duck.

[Stu Bowie]

Superb exposure, and nice and sharp Axel. What lovely markings this guy has. Well captured.

[Krijn Trimbos]

Very nicely done Axel! Gorgeous colors, killer exposure, good specimen, good headturn. Love the raised tail! No nits from my end just a congrats!

[Bob Malbon]

Axel, Thanks for posting this capture - Help the rest of us to know how high the hill is!! bob

[Raul Quinones]

Great (Excellent picture IMO) and awesome bird. Great exposure, sharpness, details and colors.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Nice looking bird with beatutiful colors,details and pose!

[Ramon M. Casares]

Just terrific! Water is great, bird is great, pose is great, detail is great, exposure and colours are great, and comp is very nice. Congratualitons!

[Arthur Morris]

Agree with all of the postive comments above. Many folks would argue that this is a perfect head angle, after all, the bird's head is square to the back of the camera. Do note, however, that when the bird is angled l a bit toward us as this beauty is, it is usually best for the bird to have its head on straight, i.e, parallel to its body (or at least pretty close to that.) Here, the birds head is actually turned away from the line of its body. Now don't get me wrong, this is a fine image and one that I wish that I had in my collection.