Female Hooded Merganser

[Dan Brown]

I know, messy BG! Captured today with handheld Nikon D200, 80-400mmVR at 400mm, f8, 1/1250th sec, ISO 400, manual exp mode. PP'ed in CS3, cropped 40%, sharpened with Nik Sharpener Pro. C&C welcome.

[Daniel Cadieux]

As you say, busy! Also looks oversharpened and quite contrasty. When you applied noise reduction you forgot some areas around the face/head area. These guys are ultra fast and difficult to capture mid-flight. Good job tracking it :-)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the sense of speed. Adding to Daniel's suggestions, you could try to blur the BG more.